Kyllogynai: A Star Wars Story
by SethTheScavenger
Summary: Far in the north of Tattoine, under the Twin Stars, lies an utopian land no one knew about... Until the Empire came. Once prosperous and thriving civilization crumbles under the Imperial reign that they can't oppose, because of their traditions. The only hope in saving it lies in an outlander Seth and a teenage priestess, who fights the Imperials in the most unconventional ways.
1. Chapter 1 - Spaceport Catastrophe

A true story assembled and written down by Seth Vangh Ersten, eight years after the fall of the Galactic Empire.

For Amelia

-Prologue-

"I will never lay a hand on you sister, but I will stand in your way if I have to."

Terror. Fear. The few years of prosperity seemed to be a time long gone. Far in the northern regions of Tattoine, raiders seeked the most valuable resource of that time, water. Indigenous tribes were blessed by a miracle, and discovered a river on the scorching planet of sand and rocks. Led by an extraordinary, kind and beautiful girl. They first build a city around the wellspring, and then another one down south, on both river banks. They were willing to share their land with anyone, but raiders were blinded by their thirst for blood and water. And so, they entered the first city they encountered.

Locals tried to retreat as far north as they could, or eventually locked their doors and hid on the rooftops. They were not ready for combat and war. As one of the locals looked upon death and suffering of his kinsmen, he yelled in their native tongue:

'We need to find weapons to defend ourselves!'

For a moment everyone seemed to agree with him, and began looking around for anything reminiscent of a weapon. That was until one his friends ran up to the rooftop, accompanied by a beautiful teenage girl, covered in bizarre brown tattoos.

'No! Khal doesn't want us to fight!' He yelled and stopped next to his friend, but the girl carried on to the edge of the rooftop. They looked at her with confusement.

'What does she want to do then?' One of them asked.

The girl looked down on the raiders, mixed among the suffering locals. Her eyes slowly began to fill with tears. The peaceful world she was trying to build was falling apart, but she didn't just stand and doing nothing. She backed off and spread her hands. Dust of the floor below began to move away from her and she slowly began floating as if there was no gravity. Everyone looked at her with disbelief, and after the while even the raiders noticed a bizarre phenomenon. Some even stopped fighting. The girl rose higher and higher. She looked down on the city with despair. She had to do something she did not want to do.

With a move of her hand, the girl cracked the ground open, creating boundary between the raiders and her people. Their confusement grew even bigger, as the ground below the raiders began to collapse, fall lower and lower, creating a high cliff on the other side. They were completely separated. The locals were safe, but not for long. Therefore the girl gave up on one of the things she held most dear. Her body began to shine, lighter and lighter, until the light was brighter than a star, a light that pierced even matter and people, pure and inescapable.

No one was able to confirm how long that phenomenon lasted, but sooner or later everything went back to normal. The raiders down the cliff were gone, but so was the girl. The girl who saved her people.

.

.

.

Thousands of years later...

The twin stars hanged low above the horizon, but it wasn't late, for this land was located far in the north, where the suns always stayed low, where the sky throughout the day was pink with shades of orange and yellow. Warm light shined bright on the buildings of an ancient city, isolated from the rest of the world by mysterious forces. In the hum of peaceful and thin streets two loud voices stood out. Cheerful chanting and laughing. Seth and Sofie were not one of the locals, but they tried to enjoy their short visit as much as they could, it was not an everyday occasion to visit the city of Khalos, located on high, beautiful and green cliffs, an oasis in the desert. No one knew it's here, except for the worthy ones, and the inhabitants. They were... peculiar people in every aspect of their existence.

Kaghatians had a light brown skin, at the verge of golden. Their heads were covered with a fluffy bush of curly hair. Their brown eyes had untypical yellowish eyelids. Lovers of life itself, peaceful, open to each other, as well as the outlanders.

They looked at Seth and Sofie and they were happy for them. Those two were welcome to that place. She was there for the first time in her life, but he… His story was complicated.

After a long night of dancing, singing and drinking with the locals, Seth took Sofie to his old apartment where he used to live many years ago. It was mostly a one, cosy, big room separated into different sections. Stairs lead to a small bedroom right under the ceiling. Being tired as they were, both decided to go to sleep. As the apartment had just one big bed, Seth and Sofie stood above it in a silent dilemma.

'So…' Seth began while looking at Sofie nervously 'I think…'

'Yeah...' She said and nodded her head. She was just as nervous as him and avoided a longer eye contact.

'Right… I will go for the couch.' Seth said, ending the uncomfortable exchange of words. Truly, this was not the solution either of them wished for, but obviously none knew how to approach this topic at such a time. The moment Seth walked down the stairs, it seemed to be too late. Sofie tried not bother herself with that. She simply stripped down to her underwear and crawled under a blanket.

Although that may be hard to believe, this was the first time in her eighteen years old life, when she experienced this side of reality. Pleasures and beauty, earned through kindness and understanding. That was they way of the kaghatians, which was completely alien to Sofie. The only life she got to experience before, was the life of violence. Against her will, the Galactic Civil War and the Jedi ways enforced heavily by her father, took away her childhood, sense of proper morality and experience of love. Here, she could finally understand what those were. Being new to all this, naturally she was curious and passionate about every single thing around her. For the first time she could be herself, feel comfortable with people around her. The more time she spent in the land of the twin stars, the bigger her confidence grew...

'Seth!' Sofie yelled. His reaction was quick, as Seth appeared in the bedroom in a matter of seconds.

'What's going on?' He asked. Sofie looked at him in silence, but at some point finally overcame her nerves:

'For so many years I had to sleep alone, on a tight bed, in a noisy starship. It doesn't feel good… Could you make a difference, at least once? If you are alright with that of course…'

'Sure… There is no problem' Seth said with a feel of relief and lied down next to Sofie. She looked at him with an adorable smile, almost as if she flew away in her mind. Seth replied with a chuckle and asked:

'What's up?'

'It's just that… Kaghatians praise you in a certain way. Why is that?'

'It is a long, and tiring story…' He said and sighed as he was going back to his memories. Memories of happiness, revelation and great sadness.

'When I was little, my father used to tell me bedtime stories, but at some point… He decided I had to toughen up, so he stopped. It's a shame, I liked those, and it seems like you've got one as well.'

Seth looked upon Sofie's round face with pity. He promised himself to help her however he could, and seeing in her green eyes how much she loved such stories, he began… A story that goes four years back…

'This story isn't just mine… It goes about for years back, to a lonely imperial officer, onboard a star destroyer...

-1-

Spaceport Catastrophe

"Forgive the evil men, for they are lost and confused, not truly evil, but ignorant.

Officer Landa woke up. For a short period of time, the ship vibrated in an unusual manner. They have apparently left hyperspace, but Landa had no way to confirm it. Her small, rough dormitory had no windows. However, she knew well that soon she would hear an announcement to gather in the hangar.

'All officers transferred to the Khalos Jurisdiction, board lambda shuttle YT-2144 in hangar number one.' The speaker said.

Lionela stood up from her bed and put on her uniform. She had no baggage of her own, all the things she needed were said to be provided by the local authorities.

She knew nothing of the place where she was being transferred, only researched information on the planet. Its name was Tattoine, a desolate desert world, capable to sustain its inhabitants through moisture farming. At least that was what she managed to discover.

Officer Landa entered the hangar and boarded the ship with a dozen of other officers. Inside awaited four stormtroopers, for security measures, and a senior lieutenant that must have served as a guide for the new officers. Everything about that transfer seemed unusual. That was a big amount of new officers for such an unimportant place, in outer rim if that was not enough. And the name of the city, Khalos, seemed unlike any other cities of Tattoine.

Officer Landa strap herself in. The shuttle took off and flew out from the hangar. There was nothing to be seen through a small window, but a darkness. Landa peeked to the pilots' cabin. The round shape of the planet began to grow with a distant source of light l, rising from the horizon. A ring of light, revealing more of the surface. Though there was no up or down, the planet seemed to be above the shuttle. As Landa looked into the light, she noticed that it came from not one, but two, Twin Stars.

'Tilting westward.' One of the pilots said. The ship turned around its axis, bringing the planet surface below it.

'That's typical…' One officer chattered with the other. 'I request a transfer from an icy cube and land on a desolate desert.'

'A desolate desert? You have no idea where you are going…' The senior lieutenant said.

'Look!' Other officer yelled and pointed at the window. Landa, as well as many others, peeked outside the shuttle. What she saw denied all geographic info on the planet of Tattoine. She saw a river, surrounded by dense woods and green planes, full of wildlife and various colors.

'This can't be Tattoine…' Officer Landa said.

'You better believe it.' Senior lieutenant replied.

The shuttle approached a big city on the edge of a cliff, full of green gardens. It definitely wasn't built by the Empire or any other fraction she knew. The architecture was very exquisite and beautiful, with all of the Imperial elements standing out with no sense of aesthetic.

'Entering Khalos jurisdiction. Requesting a landing permission on a pad number two. Shuttle YT-2144.' One of the pilots said.

The shuttle landed on a platform on a high cliff, in a part of the city much less green than the rest, obviously modified by the Imperials.. The boarding ramp lowered. The senior lieutenant walked over to the middle and said:

'I am senior lieutenant Trevon and for the time being I will be your guide around the place. Follow me to the briefing room, where each of you will get your assignment. Oh… And one more thing... If possible, avoid any contact with the locals. They are dangerously elusive and unpredictable. Before the Empire arrived here they lived in chaotic anarchy. Be wary…' Trevon said and marched out from the shuttle. All lieutenants followed him out to the platform.

Something seemed off to officer Landa. This big, beautiful and exquisite city, crafted with cobblestone, did not look like it was built by anarchists, neither the Imperials… What sort of place was that? Where did it come from?

'On behalf of director Morin, I welcome you to the Khalos Jurisdiction. I know that, this transfer may be very confusing, but know, that each one of you has been carefully selected for this very special project.' Senior lieutenant spoke to everyone in the briefing room. 'As we all know, true law and order are not a common good around the galaxy. Even in our wonderful capital that is Coruscant, crime dwells within its gigantic city… Even under Emperor's rule, the senate is still filled with deceitful politicians. What we are doing here, is an attempt to make a change. A secluded bubble, easier to govern, control and maintain, if necessary, even self sufficient.

What we have encountered here upon arrival gave us quite a good head start… Four solid bases for big cities and dozens upon dozens of smaller villages. Locals, apparently they call themselves kaghatians, but in galactic basic we have a better word for them… anarchists. Before the Empire has arrived here, they lived in chaos… No governing system, not a single ruler or leader… Only a petty religion of an entity, Khal Kaghatia… Not too creative with their names…' Lieutenant joked. The crowd chuckled. 'But carrying on… The priests has been arrested and religion prohibited, due to a bad influence… Inspiring insubordination. However, this is where our advantages come into play… They are weak, naive… The do not possess any weapons. If approached correctly… They are fine "hosts". So, now, all of you are going to receive your stations, your important roles in our new society.'

Being done with welcoming speech, everyone walked over to a big hall and then to a higher ranking officer of their branch. Landa looked everywhere, but could not find anyone she could report to, until the senior officer from the shuttle approached her with a data pad in his hand.

'Officer Landa?' He asked.

'Yes sir, that's me… There isn't any place for me to report.' She replied.

'Because you are the only one around here.'

'The only one?'

'The only science officer of your rank. All the kids grow up wanting to commanding officers, owning and ordering entire fleets. I have reviewed your file… and it's something. There are very few people like you anymore officer. A bit of galactic history, linguistics, geology, chemistry and then a degree in astrophysics… How is that even possible?'

'A girl growing up with a lot of free time and her own convictions.'

'I see… Well, director Morin requested your transfer because of your scientific approach and a wide knowledge of history and linguistic. We couldn't care less about the primitive culture of the locals, but sometimes it creates certain obstacles. It will be your job to understand how to overcome them.'

'Cultural obstacles… I see.' Lionela said unsurely.

'Come officer, I was ordered to show you where everything is.'

'Of course sir.' Lionela said and followed the senior lieutenant outside. The sky gave a very unusual aura to that place. It seemed as if the twin stars did not rise much higher above the southern horizon than they already were. The sky was yellow and orange melted with pink further north.

'You are going to have to do some sightseeing yourself, but I would suggest you stay out of the local starport today… The stormtroopers will be carrying out an important operation.' Senior lieutenant warned Landa.

'I will sir.'

Senior lieutenant stopped at one of the local buildings and pointed at it.

'This is an imperial library. That's where we store all of the confiscated books.'

'Why confiscated, sir?'

'It is just a manner of speech… They were lying out there in the open, free for the taking for everyone. It was careless for the locals to do it, we wouldn't want any of them stolen… I guess you will be visiting that place a lot, officer.'

'I think so as well, sir.' Officer Landa kept acquiescing uncomfortably.

'Why so stiff officer? Khalos Jurisdiction is not like duty on an imperial starship. You will not be constantly supervised by higher ranking officers. You can lay back as long as you discipline yourself when meeting the director, get your job done and of course stay loyal to the Empire.'

'It may not be easy getting used to it sir.' Landa said timidly.

'I see… Maybe that's for the better. An imperial officer with too much freedom is not always the most efficient officer… But trust me, director Morin has his ways to keep us disciplined…' Senior lieutenant said menacingly. Landa looked at him with worry, but tried to hide her emotions. 'Let me show you where you are going to sleep…'

...

Seth hasn't been to Khalos in years and he wasn't that keen on coming back. The Land of the Twin Stars reminded him of the painful loss he has suffered. At that time, he only saw an opportunity for business. He knew that in such an isolated place he would find many interesting trade offers with the locals, for valuables he has scavenged on his way through the galaxy.

Seth landed his ship in the Khalos spaceport and walked out to the streets. To his shock, that place was nothing like he remembered it. The Land of the Twin Stars known for being isolated from the rest of the galaxy, was swarming with Imperials and their totalitarian imagery. Stormtroopers patrolled the streets and Imperial emblem hung from almost every building. Very few kaghatians roamed the street and in every case their natural happiness was gone from their faces. Even though Seth's emotional sensitivity has faded over the years, that was quite a sad sight for him.

He walked down the street where the market for the outlanders was located, not as impressive as it once was. Only two stalls were left standing. Seth roamed the square and looked at the city which once was so bright and vivid, now seemingly grey and sad. Above the buildings, in the distance stood a big structure, palace of kaghatian arts and on the walls… Big, red, imperial banners.

'Symbol of the Twin Star was much more fitting to those walls.' Said one of kaghatian traders, whose stall stood right next to Seth.

'It did…' He answered.

'So… You've been here before?' Trader asked while looking at Seth's pale skin with curiosity.

'A long time ago… Before this happened… But what happened here?'

'People of this "Galactic Empire" came here one day… We thought they will be our new friends, but no. They took control over us and became hostile, they hurt us and now speak of bizarre things like "law" or "anarchy"... "Money"... Something like that didn't happen in centuries.' The trader said with misery and finished with a long, sad sigh.

'How is that even possible? I thought that only the worthy can enter this land.'

'It appears that we were both fed with fairytales. They are here, so there is no ancient magic protecting us. Just like they say...'

It was hard to describe the aura of misery that surrounded this man. Seth looked around for any other kaghatians on the square. Among the few he could find, each of them looked the same as the trader, as if they were missing something.

'Everything just fades away, our entire culture. There are less and less artists, singers, architects… And you won't find any tattoo makers, brewers or priests anymore… By the way, would you like some kaghatian liquor? I've got some hidden under the counter.'

'Why not…' Seth's answered with a sad sigh and leaned on the counter as the trader took a bottle and two glasses out.

'You know, you apparently can't give those out anymore. They say you need a license, and I don't even know what that is.'

'Ridiculous…' Seth said to comfort the trader and emptied a glass of liquor with a one quick move. Trader took his glass and looked into the liquid with sentiment, sipping from time to time.

'But that's not the worst of it…' trader began. Seth turned his head towards him with curiosity, but at the same time a fear of what he might hear 'Those outlanders saw Khal Kaghatia as a heresy, without even trying to understand her. They shut down the temples, began to hunt priests and priestesses down… they are all gone by now. To make things even worse, those imperial people say that traditional chants and wisdom of our lady is not allowed… How are we supposed to carry on like that?'

This question was much more serious than Seth thought. Teachings of Khal Kaghatia were the sole reason kaghatians could live in peace and prosperity, according to their dreams. Priests and priestesses were responsible for the education of youth for thousands of years, teaching them philosophy from the youngest age, so they would understand the universe in the earliest age. The Empire disrupted that thriving tradition, when they came there a couple of years ago, together with their laws and harsh mentality…

Seth's contemplation came to an end suddenly. After a wave of strong vibrations in the ground, came a loud roar of an explosion. All eyes looked in the direction of fire and smoke pouring above the buildings. It appeared as if the epicenter of the explosion was the spaceport of Khalos. Seth hoped not. He rushed through the streets to find out. To his shock, the building where he landed his ship earlier that day collapsed in fire. Imperial stormtroopers surrounded the place casually and kept any onlookers away. Seth approached one of them and asked with resentment:

'What happened here?'

No one answered or even looked at him 'Hey, what happened?!' Seth asked again.

'None of your business kid.' one of the stormtroopers mumbled through his white helmet and pushed Seth away when he tried to approach the rumble.

'My ship was inside… What am I supposed to do now?' Seth said, but again met with no reaction 'Hey, bucket head! I am talking to you!'

This time Seth managed to get a reaction, but not in his odds:

'Bucket head?' stormtrooper asked and turned to his partner 'Hey 4023, you know how this kid called us?'

At this moment Seth knew, he made a mistake. He did not think of the consequences and so the two stormtroopers decorated his face with bruises in one of the back alleys. He tried fighting back, but he was just a seventeen years old boy against two grown up soldiers.

'You can see that bucket from up close.' Said one of them, Seth couldn't tell which one anymore. His body was in pain. He tried crawling away, but it was naive. They started kicking him as he was lying on the ground.

Seth started thinking how miserable his life was and how miserably it would end. No one would miss him. No one would remember him. He felt shame and embarrassment as he waited for the moment everything fades away.

He didn't feel being kicked anymore, but he was still there or the ground. Something happened. Seth rolled on his back and looked around with his eyes. Some figure fought off the two stormtroopers with great skill and agility. Seth crawled to a wall and leaned on it to see and understand what is going on. The figure wore pieces of armor, armor of an Imperial scout trooper, painted over and modified with an olive parka underneath. It fought the stormtroopers with thick metal gauntlets and a harpoon fired from one of them.

Before Seth managed to notice all that, the two stormtroopers were lying unconscious on the ground. It was all over. He felt relieved… Relaxed… Pain no longer bothered him. He just wanted to rest… To sleep…

...

His ribs may have been broken. A wounded kaghatian was sitting on his knees in the middle of an office, built in a local manner, but modified by Imperials. Director Morin circled around the poor victim with an irritated look on his face. He was accompanied by two stormtroopers by the doors.

'So... All the elders in your community magically disappear? What, Khal Kaghatia ascends them to heavens?' Director asked.

'I don't know…' Kaghatian whispered with all the strength he had left, while shaking his head. In response director Morin sighed with irritation and crouched down in front of the questioned. He grabbed his hair aggressively and asked:

'Alright… Where is your mother?'

'Here… In the city.'

'Yes, I see. And the mother of your mother?'

'I don't know…' Kaghatian replied again with a begging tone.

Morin dropped his hair, stood up hopelessly and sighed even louder than before.

'Put him with the rest.' He said to the stormtroopers, who approached the kaghatian, grabbed him by the arms and pulled out from the room. As they dragged him through a dark corridor, lightened only through miniature windows, Imperial agent Vanto looked on them with an angle of his eye while walking down to director's office.

Morin was sitting on his armchair with legs lying comfortably on the desk. Agent Vanto bowed kindly upon stepping through the doorway, even though director looked at the ceiling, not at him.

'You summoned me, director.' Agent said.

'Yes… As you may have seen the interrogations are not going too well for us…' Director said and looked at Vanto after a while 'And there is a great mystery to be solved.'

'Why there are no seniles in the land…'

Admiral applauded by pointing a finger at the agent.

'Precisely! We came here years ago, to a land we do not fully understand from a land they do not understand neither. While we can get by all those ridiculousness as Khal Kaghatia, the eternal light and love for all things... This is beyond reason and logic. Even a civilization of this size needs to have elders as the wastes of society... But there are none.'

'Either this place is unnatural or we are dealing with some sort of conspiracy.' Agent theorized.

'Yes... There are stories, that those kaghatians found a source of eternal youth. Tell me honestly agent Vanto, do you believe in magic?' Morin asked, and observed the unsure look on Vanto's face. Admiral's accent was smooth, but unclear. One could never be sure what kind of truth lied behind his words or their meaning.

'Those are… Just superstitions. We mustn't trust such silly beliefs.' Agent Vanto replied with forced self confidence.

'Correct. I am giving you a new assignment. You are to find an answer to that mystery. Kaghatians turn out to be quite loyal to their people, but do not forget, they are not the only citizens here... There are some outsiders who came here tohave an outlaw life. They are still different from the locals, and perhaps easier to crack. That's where you should start.' Morin replied calmly, to Vanto's relief.

'And I shall do so. Your will is my duty, director.'

'Naturally… You do remember the consequence of failure, don't you.' Morin said while looking deep into agent's eyes. Vanto turned his head with fear towards a skull of some mysterious beast hanging on the wall. Admiral Morin was well known for his terrifying punishments. Vanto knew well he could not fail.

'Of course sir, I will discover their secrets…' Vanto said and left the room quickly. He could still hear director's voice on the corridor:

'Go my knight. You are the best of the best. I know well you won't disappoint me.' Director said with a small dose of irony in his voice.

Agent Vanto was afraid. He wanted to get out from director's sight as fast as he could. His hands and legs were shaking. He had to cool down before going to the investigation and look well in front of other troops. He entered one of many storage rooms in the Imperial facility.

Those places were full of goods confiscated from kaghatians. Agent Vanto turned off the cameras around the room, closed the doors and approached one of many crates. Inside were dozens of bottles, all full of kaghatian liquor. Vanto grabbed one of them, sat down in the corner and began drinking. Success and failure just became a matter of life and death.


	2. Chapter 2 - Into the Ashes

**-2-**

 **Into the Ashes**

"If you are not all knowing, there is no rationality without improvisation."

Seth began waking up slowly. For the moment being he only heard two female voices.

'We could use the water from the wells. I cannot do much with no medicine and just the river water.'

'I tried getting down there, but it is a labyrinth of caves and I do not know the way…'

'So you have never been to the sanctuary?'

'No…'

Seth slowly opened his eyes. He was in a room of stone with no windows and simple furniture. There were two kaghatian girls taking care of a pile of bloody rags. One with long curly hair, beautiful dress and a decent amount of jewelry on her entire body. Second with puffy hair tied on top of her head and very simple shirt with short pants. Both barefooted.

The second girl noticed Seth waking up and approached him.

'Mida!' she said while Seth was getting up. He was lying on an improvised, but soft bed. Young, angular face of the second girl looked at him with pity.

'You were hurt.' she said.

'Where am I?' Seth asked.

Mida stood next to the other girl and replied to Seth's question:

'We are in a basement of my house, deep underground where the ignorant men won't find us.'

'Ignorant men?'

'Men of this… Empire.' she added.

Seth sat down on the bed and looked for more people in the room. There were none.

'Where is my savior?' Seth asked with confusement. None of the girls answered, they only looked at each other with shame untold Mida grabbed other girl's arm and said:

'It was Kainee… It was her.'

Seth looked at them with confusement. Kaghatians were known to be incapable of conflicts and violence. She could not fight off the stormtroopers in such a way. But apparently she did. On a chair next to him hanged the olive parka he saw before. That indeed was Kainee.

'But… You are a kaghatian…' Seth said with confusement. Kainee looked away with shame and tears in her eyes. She hugged Mida with sadness and whispered:

'It is not supposed to be like that… We are not supposed to live like that.'

Mida caressed Kainee's head to calm her down. Seth looked at them uncomfortably.

'How about we get some fresh air, huh?' Mida asked both of them.

The three walked out to balcony built within the cliff and admired the beautiful landscape of a vast dune sea cut in half by a long river.

'I remember a time when all of this belonged to the kaghatians… What a beautiful world that was.' Mida said. Seth recalled memories of old, about him learning to drive a speeder bike on the plains below him, back when Imperials did not patrol the streets.

'Me too…' he said. Kainee looked at him with curiosity and asked:

'How did you find your way here? Do you have a family in the city?'

'No… It's complicated. Kaghatian girl and her brother saved my life… Amelia and Sacho.'

Though all the sadness, Kainee and Mida smiled to Seth friendly.

'I knew Amelia…' said Kainee 'We used to climb those cliffs together. I haven't seen her in a long time.'

For a while Seth was paralyzed with a great and sudden pain all over his body. He felt an incredibly strong urge to get off that topic. For a short while it became the meaning of his life, a higher priority.

'Me neither…' he mumbled, trying to hide the chaotic sea of his emotions. The girls looked at him piercingly, but seeing the obvious discomfort on Seth's face, they turned their heads away, as if pitying him.

The wind was blowing calmly in their faces and Mida took a deep breath of that fresh air.

'I should be going…' Seth said quietly. Mida and Kainee looked at him with confusement.

'Do not be ridiculous, you have just came…'

'Besides, where would you want to go?'

Seth was unsure for a while but then replied boldly:

'To my home, on the forest moon of Endor.'

'Now I don't know where Endor is, but with the spaceport blown up, the only vehicles that will enter or leave this land, belong to the Imperial people… And they are not the kindest.' said Kainee. Seth hopelessly leaned on the stone handrail and sighed loudly. For a moment he missed the solitude of his house, where he wouldn't have to get into uncomfortable interactions with other people. Mida approached him and put a hand around his arm.

'You are safe here. Come and meet the others…' she said while leading him back inside.

The three went back underground and then up the stairs to a building on the surface. Way out from the basement lead to a typical kaghatian apartment. What was characteristic about them was the fact that almost everything needed in decent homestead was located in a one big room, separated into different sections. The main thought behind that layout was to unify the housemates. In this case, it was an old fashioned two floored, square design with a fireplace in the middle and a silent ventilator above it. The air inside was warm thanks to the fire and gave a very comforting feeling.

'Welcome to my humble homestead.' Mida said 'Be sure to feel like home while you're here.'

After a while Seth noticed two men playing holochess, quite possibly imported. It was kaghatian and an outlander with a pale skin just like Seth. The kaghatian stood up politely as soon as he noticed Seth.

'Oh, you are finally awake.' he said and bowed kindly 'My name is Enetin.'

'Seth…' a quiet and tired answer. Feeling the unfriendly vibes, Enetin kept his distance to Seth who began wondering around the room, so as not to seem

'And the guy behind me, Argo.' Enetin said, to which Argo applauded with a nod of his head.

'So…' Seth began boldly 'You are some sort of the resistance against the Empire here in Khalos?'

'You could say that…' Enetin confirmed unsurely. Seth smiled ironically and mumbled under his nose:

'Huh… Wherever is a ruling power, there will always be some sort of resistance.'

'You're not saying you are against our resistance, are you?' Seth suddenly heard soft female voice coming from above him. A kaghatian girl was sitting on support beams right under the ceiling. Unnoticeable unless someone knew she was there. Considering that she held an opened book in her hands, this conversation must have stopped her reading session. She looked down at Seth with a mild smile and pity in her eyes, and he looked back at her with an emotionless expression.

'Maybe I am… Maybe I'm not. What is it to you?'

'Seth, we are your friends.' Kainee said while making a step towards Seth 'And it appears you are not getting well on with the Imperial people.'

Seth turned away from everyone with shame and closed his eyes.

'I have no friends…' and again, all the pain of the past came back to him. "Not anymore…" he kept telling himself in his mind. Memories of old passed through his mind as he tried to suppress them. Him and a young kaghatian girl running around the streets, right under the pink sky and the twin stars on the horizon. Back when that land was free. It struck him that those days may never return. It was a depressing and melancholic thought, a thought he wanted to abandon and forget… To leave that place, but he couldn't anymore. He was stuck in Khalos with his memories.

Before Seth knew it, a hand caressed his arm. He was unable to escape anyway, so he decided to turn back to them. He would have had to do it sooner or later. It was Mida. She looked at him, surprisingly, with… understanding.

'What were their names?' she asked kindly, without hesitation. Seth's eyes opened widely and his mouth opened loosely in shock.

'How… How do you know?' he asked. Mida made a mild, comforting smile.

'You did not need words to say that. We see all of that differently than your kind...' she replied. She wasn't exaggerating. Some outlanders even claim that, because of their psychology, kaghatians cannot be associated with humans. Everything because of a seemingly unimportant difference. Throughout ages humans and humanoids developed their primary instinct of survival. On the other hand kaghatians adapted the instinct of saving life, all life. To them, others are equally important as themselves, even in the most extreme of cases.

Seth looked at her and everyone else with unsure sadness. All looked at him the same way as Mida did, a look of mercy, even the girl above him closed her only exception was the outlander Argo who looked down to his glass.

Seth tried to answer but couldn't force himself to do it. Seeing that, Mida slowly hugged him. Seth gasped.

'Amelia and Sacho…' he said, while crying on Mida's arm 'Two, most wonderful people I ever met…' Somehow the presence of such compassionate people around him was soothing, especially because they were so much alike the two he has lost. They were all kaghatians after all. At this moment something changed inside of Seth… He felt like he was back home.

Seth spent the next few days in Mida's apartment recovering from his injuries. Imperial patrols would knock on the doors from time to time and then everyone had to go hide to the basement, which was hidden behind a bookshelf. Whenever he had time, Seth spent hours looking out the window, eager to observe any kaghatians on the streets. He admired not only the beauty of their being, but also their moral strength, something he wished to have.

One time as Seth was sitting by the window in the kitchen, Enetin sat down next to him and began observing the people in a thin street as well.

'There are less and less of us roaming the city…' he said.

'What happened to the rest then?'

'Hiding in their homes… Gone to the countryside or mountains… Some went missing.'

'They give up… just like that? Seth asked. Enetin looked at him in contemplation, scratching his long and dense beard.

'I think that we are all just missing something…' he answered. Seth looked at him worryingly, awaiting for the continuation 'Priests and priestesses are gone… And we have looked into the records of the Imperial prison… The ignorant people captured only a small fraction of them. We have no idea what happened to the rest. Still, without them, there are no more chants in the city, there is no one to educate the youth… The knowledge of our Kyria slowly fades away and her wisdom became illegal.'

'Huh… You are probably the first kaghatian to know what "illegal" means.' Seth said. They both chuckled calmly for a while.

'There are no such words in our dialect, because there is no use for them in here… At least there wasn't.' Enetin chuckled again 'Can you even imagine the shock on their faces when they discovered that we have no leadership in this land? Our worlds are too different to work together, but they have no decency and lots of threatening tools. They will devour us, until we are like them… Or dead. That is going to happen without Khal Kaghatia, without our priests and priestesses. Only they can hear her voice… And pass it on to us. There may be some who can handle it, but our self confidence grows weaker, just as our belief.'

'Especially when you come to realize that those tales of her magic are nothing than fiction…' said Seth. Enetin suddenly looked straight at him, as if he wanted to disagree and say something. But he froze for a while and didn't say anything, only nodded his head hopelessly. After a moment of silence he looked out the window and continued:

'But even that isn't the worst of our worries.' Enetin said nervously 'How much do you know about our culture?' Seth shook his head.

'Not much…'

'Then you probably don't know anything about Gipha.' Enetin replied and observed the confusement on Seth's face 'Just as I thought… It is a holy city, located on top of a great mountain in the far north. When older kaghatians think their time has come, they take up a pilgrimage to that place, to spend their last days in the first kaghatian settlement, in the wellspring of the river, city of priests and priestesses. The Imperial people were fortunately lazy with exploration and didn't manage to find it yet.'

'How is that even possible.' Seth asked with confusement.

'There is no contact with Gipha, there has never been really. It is a one way pilgrimage to the north, open for priests and priestesses who seek a place of peace and meditation as well as the seniles. Out of respect, no one crosses the border in the northern mountains. There has been no pilgrimage in years, so as not to endanger them. Imperials have spies everywhere. We must not speak about it and especially try to reach it… We can only hope for the best to happen in the future… But we have no idea how to make the best happen.' Enetin covered his face in shame. Now, knowing more, thoughts of kaghatian golden age being over were even more depressing.

Seth roamed around the apartment. Kaghatians had plenty of various hobbies and passions. It seemed like Mida's was making jewelry. A big section of the main room has been specially devoted to just that. There was a big workbench with various tools, between it and the wall, a huge stand with great amounts of various jewelry. Seth's attention has been drawn by the simplest of them all, a necklace representing a sun, made out of nothing else than wood.

Mida quietly entered the room and approached Seth. She looked at him, then the necklace and smiled.

'Please, take it… May it remind you of the way of the light… Kyllogynai.' she said.

'Kyllogynai?' Seth asked.

'It is an old word from the old kaghatian tongue. Kyllogynai is the light, kindness, support, happiness, beauty, truth and what outlanders tend to call "the force". It is so many different things, and at the same time… One thing.'

'That seems complicated.' Seth said and replayed her with a smile of his own 'I can't take it just like that…' he began, but Mida interrupted him. She reached for the necklace and put it into Seth's hands.

'It is indeed a hard concept to understand… I used to gift jewelry to others for small favors they did for me. The rest is planning something… Something connected with the Imperial people. Just promise me you will not leave them. They need all the help they can get and you know many things about the outside world, just like Argo. May that be a small favor you would do for them… and all of us.'

'Them? Are you not participating? Seth asked.

'I am not up for conflicts… I can only help by taking care of them and giving a safe place to stay.'

'I see…'

'They are waiting for you downstairs.' Mida said with hope in her eyes. Hope that Seth agrees. But he stood there unsurely, looking at the wooden star lying in his hand. At this moment he had a choice to follow Kyllogynai or not. It was tempting… The simplicity of refusing and leaving that building for good, the way he has been doing it for the last few years. But what kind of man did that make him?

The necklace reminded him of one time, long time ago, when he and Amelia sat under the shine of the Twin Stars, in one of the cities outside of the kaghatian land. Two gangsters beat up a poor old merchant in the market. Seth's initial reaction was to back off, but Amelia stopped him and said:

'We are not the good guys by default Seth… Those are our actions that define us.' and so the cheerful kaghatian girl and her friend went to help an old man with rebuild his ruined stall.

It felt like she was talking to him again, saying the very same words… And Seth could not refuse Amelia, no matter how much he would fight himself. She saved his life, she gave him a family and happiness when he needed it. How ungrateful would it be to refuse her? His conscience would not handle such an act of ignorance.

Seth closed his hand, holding the necklace tight, and put it to his chest. Mida smiled happily bowed with her head to thank him. Seth put the new amulet on his neck and went for the secret doors to the basement.

Seth expected something more reminiscent of a plan, but improvisation fit him just well. Enetin stayed in the hideout to oversee the entire operation and lead everyone. Knowing the Imperial routines, Argo was supposed to draw the stormtroopers away from the ruined starport. Kainee, Seth and Vela were to sneak to the ruins from the cliffs and investigate "the crime scene". That was all they decided to do beforehand.

Before leaving for the operation, all gathered their equipment, except for Seth for who left everything behind in his ship. His clothes were dirty from blood, but he was given some spare ones, different from the ones found on the outside. The fabric was all natural, soft in touch and very comfortable. The great majority of kaghatian clothing was sewed in a characteristic style known as kaloginia. It was stylised off shoulder clothing, symbolizing the twin stars with it's asymmetry. It is the kind of costumes Kainee and Enetin were received and oversized full shirt and a kaloginia vest, which he adjusted with a couple of belts.

Once everyone was ready, Seth and the girls finally stepped outside to a balcony in the cliff...

'There has been no accidents in the starport for hundreds of years. I knew this place well and it always was kept incredibly safe… And now the Imperial people don't let anyone in… There must be something going on there.' Enetin said through the comlink, when Seth and the two girls walked through a thin ledge on the high cliffs. He always thought he had no fear of heights, but looking down proved him wrong. The fall looked much more threatening from this position, despite the beautiful view of a big river, surrounded by bushes in the middle of the dune sea. Noise of a nearby waterfall was very loud, Seth could barely hear anything.

'What?!' he asked loudly.

'We are here!' Kainee replied. Seth looked up. Above them was the stone wall and on top a big balcony hanging far out above the cliff. It seemed almost impossible to climb. But before Seth even managed to notice it, Vela quietly jumped up and with a few agile moves climbed up the wall. Then with no hesitation she jumped far off to grab the ledge of the balcony. For a short while she hung in the air right above a lethal fall, with nothing but her reflexes keeping her away from death. Luckily in the end her strong grip grabbed the stone floor and she hung there awaiting for the remaining two. Seth and Kainee looked up at her and then at each other nervously.

'Yeah… It is her kind of thing. But don't worry.' Kainee said and aimed her gauntlet at the balcony. She fired a small harpoon that attached to the very top and then reached with her other hand to Seth, waiting for him to grab it. Seth looked at her with hesitation.

'Come on… Don't be shy.' she said. Seth shrugged his shoulders and grabbed Kainee's hand with a strong grip. As soon as he did that, the harpoon pulled them up right towards the balcony. Seth felt almost embarrassed when she pulled him up even further with great strength of her hands so he could reach the ledge by himself.

As the three awaited for the green light from Enetin, Seth was suddenly struck by the realization that almost all kaghatians ware physically strong and well built, at least in comparison to the majorities of outsiders. The reason for that may have been their open helpfulness. It is a known fact that all kaghatian buildings were built with voluntary help of ordinary men and women, sometimes even children who want to do a good deed. That was just one, small aspect of their life among many others that could serve as a good physical training.

A small contemplation has been stopped by the voice coming from the comlink.

'Alright, the stormtroopers are leaving! There are just about four left inside.' Enetin said.

The three climbed up a balcony and jumped over a stone fence. A burned arc that used to be a doorway a couple of days ago lead to a big hangar, mostly black from charcoal. The roof was gone, shattered on the groundon top of crashed and ruined ships. Before entering Kainee stopped Seth and handed him a small blaster. He looked at it with confusement.

'So… We're dealing blasters now? he asked ironically.

'It is not designed for killing obviously. It can only stun. Use it when necessary.' Kainee replied and entered the hangar. Seth followed the two girls.

Suddenly a stormtrooper entered the room from one of burned corridors. Kainee was the first to react. She fired a harpoon, pulled the stormtroopers to her and stabbed him calmly with a syringe in the space between the armor pieces. Stormtrooper immediately fell on the ground.

'He will sleep comfortably…' she calmed her companions down and pulled her victim away to a safe place.

Seth inspected the burned floor. It was the darkest in a racers in the wall, where big chunks of bent metal stood. He took out a comlink and spoke to the entire crew:

'It is just as we all expected. The fuel tanks went off.'

'It makes no sense. Something must have triggered the reaction…' Enetin replied.

Seth noticed some doors, leading to another hangar, possibly the one where his ship was located. The doors were broken, so they had to open it wide by force. Before Seth and Kainee managed to do that, Vela stopped them with a gesture of her hand. She climbed up the wall on looked at then other side. There were two stormtroopers chatting and patrolling the second hangar. Once they were gone, she waved to them. With a lot of strength the doors opened and revealed what used to be Seth's ship.

'Oh come on…' he mumbled with irritation. It was a small ship, with place for two people and a small storage in the back… which was completely ripped open 'Did that really have to blow up during the fueling?'

Kainee looked around worryingly and looked under the rumble.

'Something is not right…' she said and pulled out a comlink 'Enetin, there were no casualties in the incident, right?'

'Yeah.'

'This place was always full of people… It makes no sense…' she began, but while Kainee and Enetin began theorizing, Seth inspected the cockpit of his ship and to his amazement the computer onboard was still functional.

'Hey… I think I know how we can solve this.' he yelled. Vela and Kainee approaches the ship with curiosity.

'This ship always had a bizarre feature I never understood… But it may prove quite useful…' Seth began and pointed at a black dot above pilot's seat 'It is a miniature surveillance system.'

'You mean that the ship recorded what happened here?' Kainee asked with relief.

'It would seem so…' Seth replied while working on a computer 'But the equipment here is fried.' he grabbed a disk sticking out from a panel and pulled it out 'We need some decent computer to play it back.'

'Well, it isn't something you'd find in ordinary kaghatian homesteads. The nearest one may be in the palace of kaghatian arts…' Enetin said through the comlink. Everyone looked looked at the big building with imperial that emerged above the rooftops 'Or the way they call it now… The Imperial Academy.'

'Kyria mou…' Vela sighed.

While they stood there admiring the palace and wasting time, the two stormtroopers circled back to that hangar and upon noticing the three insurgents aimed their blasters at them. All looked at them with fear.

'Hey, what are you doing here? This is a restricted area.'

'What do we do now? Vela whispered nervously.

'They have a terrible aim… Run!' Seth replied.

And so the three started running while stormtroopers fired and missed them. Out to the customs in ash, then to the streets and finally to the rooftops.

'I know a place where we can lay low for a while… A park with dense bushes!'Kainee yelled. Seth and Vela began following her.

'Nothing?' Vanto asked a question, with a shivering voice, to a beaten outlander in his home.

'I promise… They probably don't even trust me enough yet… To reveal such secrets…' Vanto's reply was a sigh and a hand reaching for a bottle of unfinished liquor. Before he managed to take a sip, something threw him off. An imperial alarm going off in the distance. Then his comlink rang. He tried to aim his finger at the button to answer and once his was successful, he heard a voice:

'Agent, three intruders were found in the ruins of the starport. They are northbound through the rooftops. One of them may be a suspect of a recent beating…' Vanto turned of the comlink and looked at the outlander with a silly face.

'Lucky day, huh?' he said and left the building with a bottle in his hands.

Kainee, Vela and Seth were approaching the river. The nearest place where they could safely cross it were two high buildings separated by a decent leap. That's where they were headed.

On the other side of the river, on one of the rooftops, agent Vanto set up comfortably with his long blaster rifle. He was ready to shoot the thief in stolen armor of an imperial scout trooper, but through the scope he observed the three for a while. Kainee was leading. She looked back at Vela, who then looked at Seth. They were yelling to each other and Seth looked to one of his sacks as if he was checking if something was still there. Agent knew he was carrying something of a great importance. So Vanto reached for the bottle, emptied it and prepared the shoot. His hand were more steady now...

Kainee jumped the leap safely together with Vela. Seth stayed a bit behind, but worked hard to keep up. He wasn't sure about this jump but he knew he had to do it. Once he jumped off his foot and saw that he could just make it, he felt relieved… foolishly, for suddenly a beam of green light struck his arm and violently stopped him in the air. The pain was so strong that he felt confused for a while and began falling down… into the river. Vela looked at him with shock, but Kainee's attention was drawn by the agent who looked at his deed in pride far off in the distance. The girl immediately stepped off the rooftops to avoid getting shot and find Seth.

But Seth fell into the river and the stream was strong. He could not control getting sunk with the pain in his arm. He fell deeper and deeper down the aggressive water until the moment he fell into a thin crevasse. He could only feel being flushed into the darkness and with no more air, he passed out.


	3. Chapter 3 - Sotirae

**-3-**

 **Sotirae**

"We are the brightest stars."

Seth's "adventure" in Khalos did not start promising, with a second time he has lost to the imperials. He wasn't sure if he was dead or not. The pain overwhelmed his senses. He flipped on his back and opened his eyes. There was nothing but darkness and the echoing sound of flowing water. "Did I go blind?" he asked himself.

Seth attempted to get up and find something he could lean on. With his finger he felt nothing else than wet rock. It seemed as if he was in some sort of cave, alone in the darkness with a wound that made him weaker and weaker. He waited for something to happen, whether that would be his death or someone's rescue.

Among the shiver of the water, Seth suddenly heard something else. Light footsteps coming towards him, approaching dangerously. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't even find strength to make a sound. The footsteps came right up to him and stopped suddenly. In short moment of silence Seth nervously awaited the outcome, but he never could have expected what happened next.

With a snap of fingers a flaming ball of golden light came to be and and as it began floating in the air, it shed a light on a young kaghatian girl. She looked… extraordinary. The afro hair on her head was much puffer and "bigger" than that of other girls of her kind, almost a bigger than her. She wore a beautiful kaloginia dress and her skin was covered with a plethora of wonderful brownish tattoos. Her face was round, cheerful and her eyes revealed an extraordinary compassion, almost as if through them she connected with Seth and felt his pain.

The girl noticed Seth's serious injury and pulled out a piece of cloth from a sack on her belt as well as a bottle of mysterious water. She poured the liquid over the rag sparingly and gently put it to Seth's wound. At first it hurt and he groaned in pain, but then she looked at the wound with mercifully and began whispering in a bizarre language Seth could not understand. To his amazement, the pain was gone in seconds and his strength came back to him. He was speechless and the girl just smiled to him.

Suddenly another kaghatian stepped out from behind the corner. It was a woman, older than the girl, but with identical tattoos on her body. She looked at Seth worryingly and then noticed a blaster lying next to him, the one Kainee gave him not a long time ago.

'Sotira, einai apo aftous.' she said while pointing at the blaster. The young girl turned to her and with shame said:

'Ithela vothia!'

'Trexida!' woman yelled and ran away. The girl looked at Seth and then at the blaster… She grabbed it and smashed it to pieces against the rocky wall.

'No… You don't understand…' Seth groaned, but before leaving the girl looked at Seth with shame as if she understood him.

Seth was alone again, but healed by some incredible means and with a source of light, he did not understand, right next to him. He stood up and looked around. His wound was not gone, but it seemed to disappear over time. With hope that it was clean, Seth drank some cold water for refreshment, stood up and looked around the corner. It seemed that the ball of light followed him wherever he would go. Seth chuckled with confusement and suddenly recalled the disc he was carrying. He checked his satchel only to find out that it lied inside safely. He had to bring it back to the surface, so he strolled down through the corridor to find anyone or any way out.

Those caves were a confusing labyrinth of corridors, crevasses and shafts, so Seth chose his directions randomly. He spent about an hour on doing that until he hopelessly sat down to rest. The ball of light circling around him kept getting smaller over time. That meant he would have lost it sooner or later. Seth closed his eyes, leaned on the wall and began thinking hard of what he could do. In the overwhelming silence of the caves, he began hearing some noises. At first he thought that it was water, but it wasn't. Then he thought that he was just hearing things… but the sound kept becoming clearer. It was distant chanting of choir, so perfectly synchronized that it has lost the resemblance to human voices. He suspected having gone mad, but there was nothing better he could do.

Seth followed the wonderful voices for a long time, but again his efforts were fruitless. Voices seemed to come from many corridors at once and the ball of light shrieked to a small spark. Once it was gone, the darkness came back. It was blinding at first, but as Seth's eyes adjusted to it, he noticed light reflecting on one of the walls. With relief he made a step forward… Straight to a treacherous shaft. Fall wasn't long or serious. Seth landed in a bigger room, much brighter thanks to light coming from behind the rocks. But he wasn't alone there, as he heard a roar behind his back.

Out of the shadow stepped a big animal, or rather a best. It was as tall as an adult human, looking like a huge fox with long fur. Seth reacted with fear and instinctively reached for the place where he always kept his blasters… He wished he had one in such situation. Within his nervous move, the beast started circling him in a hostile manner and growling ready to attack. As Seth backed of, it approached him, faster and faster.

Suddenly, the same girl that healed Seth's wound jumped out from the rocks right in front of the beast, which suddenly changed it's attitude. It sniffed the girl and cuddled right next to her.

'Ileni malia… Ileni.' she whispered to the beast, which began lying comfortably and let itself be petted by the girl. She looked at Seth with a peaceful smile 'Malia aresei chaidemia.' Seth was again confused beyond all reason. Who was that girl?

'So, you found your way here?' he heard a voice coming from behind his back. He turned. It was the second woman. Her accent was very peculiar. Almost as if she spoke galactic basic for the first time in her life.

'I am lost… I don't even know where "here" is.' Seth replied with a tired voice. The woman looked at him with suspicion.

'You are not one of them, are you?' she asked.

'The Imperials. No… I am an ordinary outlander who came back to this land after many years.'

'I can feel… That you speak the truth.' she said calmly 'I am sorry for leaving you there. At least my daughter Sotira was more open to you than myself. I am ashamed.'

Seth looked at the girl. Sotira bowed to him politely with a nod.

'Are you… the priestesses?' Seth asked with disbelief.

'Priestesses of flesh, blood and spirit. I am Kathia… Open to any favors.' woman said while bowing politely as well. Seth looked back at Sotira.

'Thank you for saving my life.' but the girl did not answer, only smiled.

'Efchatistoume.' Kathia said to her and as a reaction Sotira nodded her head once again 'She does not speak your tongue.'

'Why?' Seth asked with curiosity.

'Sotira was born and raised in Gipha.' Kathia said with pride. Seth looked at Sotira with amazement as she was playing with the beast that tried to kill him 'But you must be tired and hungry… Please, come.' she continued. Seth did as she asked and followed her over a huge rock. Behind it lied a sight beyond imagination. A gigantic cavern with ruins of an ancient city on the bottom and the walls. Wonderful buildings and rotundas were lit with dozens of fireplaces surrounded by people and miraculously surrounded by lush vegetation and trees, despite the lack of sunlight.

Seth, Kathia and Sotira got down to a vast courtyard and walked through ancient cobblestone streets, populated by others like them, kaghatians with extraordinary clothing and beautiful tattoos. Most were renovating the ruins that appeared to be their home now. Priests and priestesses peeked at Seth, but not like at an outsider or intruder. They were smiling at him with curiosity. 'What is this place?' Seth asked.

'It is ancient Khalos.' Kathia replied.

'Why was it build underground?' Seth asked again. Kathia chuckled in response.

'It wasn't. Thousands of years ago ground collapsed and the city was split in half. We are deep underground. Safe. The passage to that place has been shut.'

'So this is where you all went to hiding… Everyone on the surface misses you.'

Kathia looked at Seth with sadness.

'We had no contact with the surface for years now.'

'Years?' Seth asked with confusement. Kathia made a calm sigh.

'I didn't want Sotira to live her entire life in one place, no matter how great it is. It was an unusual situation to be born in Gipha, so we have chosen an unusual solution… We were probably the first two kaghatians to leave the far north. Unfortunately we have poorly chosen our time. We foresaw coming of the ignorant after arriving to Khalos. We gathered all priests and priestesses we could and went into hiding when bad things began happening… We have no idea what happened to the rest…'

Kathia and Sotira lead Seth to a top of a small hill with an extinguished fireplace in the middle. Around it stood wide stone benches.

'Just make yourself comfortable and I will prepare something to eat.' said Kathia and walked away to nearby ruins.

Seth sat down on a bench. He was now alone with Sotira. She crouched down next to the fireplace and lit it up magically with a move of her hand. She did it like it was nothing extraordinary and sat down while looking at Seth friendly. Even in times as hard as those the smiles were all present on their faces. It was such an incomprehensible innocence and kindness. However Seth was still by all the paranormal things he has seen on this day. The place that he was at, Sotira's miracles, priests and priestesses… He never would have imagined to experience any of those things when he decide trade his goods in the city of Khalos. It all seemed like a surreal dream.

The chants Seth heard before kept going on. They came from a big building in the wall of the cave and echoed all across the cavern. With time Sotira joined in with a quiet humming and synced in perfectly.

Her mother came back with three big rolls of kaghatian bread for each one of them. As they began eating, Seth kept looking at Sotira and trying to figure out what was going on here.

'You are wondering...' Kathia started 'How she is able to do all those things?' Seth was a bit embarrassed for a while, but then realized he had no reason be so.

'Yes… I've travelled around the galaxy… I've been to Khalos before… but I have never seen anything like it.'

Kathia smiled and lifted a burning log from the fireplace with just the move of her hand, like it was nothing unusual. Seth again could not hide his shock.

'Deep within us and the world, lies an eternal light, source life and love. Some are more open to that light then others and we try to understand it and synchronize with it. Unlearn what we have learned, so the physical plane would not limit us.' said Kathia. Seth looked at her with even bigger confusement than before 'If it makes it any easier for you… As far as I know, your kind calls it "the Force".'

Seth slowly began to understand all of that, or at least he thought he did.

'You are the Jedi…' he said. Kathia smiled ridiculously, but with certain amount of offense in her emotion.

'We are no Jedi. We know very well who they are and what they stand for. We could never live in their ways.'

'I don't understand…'

'The Jedi crave power through apathy and distance. They take children away from their families and turn them into loveless minions. I am not an expert in that matter, but I can easily tell that all the bad things from the outside world, were their doing. Do not understand me wrong… I do not hate them, but take pity over their sad live. How could they protect the galaxy, without love for life and one another…' Kathia's voice turned serious for this while. She looked at Sotira 'They haven't even scratched the surface… They will never know the kind of power she wields.'

'Sotira?'

'Don't let the looks fool you. Sotira is quite different than you and me.'

'How so?'

'She grew up and made her first contact with the world in a place where there are no words for "impossible", no limitations to your mind, and that combined with her power… She is not defined by reality, but the reality is defined by her.'

At this moment Seth snapped himself out of it. He suddenly realized that it was not his world, the world of metaphysics and philosophy. Looking at the overall of what he has just seen and heard, it seemed ridiculous.

'Alright… I didn't come here to contemplate on the power of the universe. I got lost and I need to get back on the surface. To my friends who are actually doing something about it and not hiding in isolation.' he yelled with irritation. To his surprise Kathia did not look more offended than when he called her "a Jedi". Her reaction was calm and understanding.

'I do not wish to hold you here by force… But I will have to talk it over with the others. It is not safe to unseal the path to the surface.' said Kathia and stood up from the bench. As she began walking away, she hesitated for a while and looked back at Seth 'If we were to stay up there, we would all risk using the greatest gift ever given to us…' and so she walked away, again leaving Seth in state of confusement. As she disappeared between the rocks, she only gave a friend nod in Sotira's direction, to which her daughter replied in the same way. No words needed, they understood each other.

Again the two were left alone. This time Seth, nervous from his incapability to do anything, focused on the continuous chanting. It gave an indescribable feeling, as if he wanted to say it was beautiful, but couldn't tell why. As if it was beauty itself… in form of sound. As the music drew him to listen to it more closely, Seth fell into a trans. For a moment he forgot about the rest of the galaxy, the Empire and all things troublesome. This became the only real place in his life… The fireplace and the cute girl sitting besides it, on the ground, not the bench… so modest. Both were conduits of light… Beautiful… Warm… The light that was not only that… Beauty and kindness as one… Inseparable… Sotira looked into his eyes, again she understood him. She saw his desperation, pain, sadness… Need to get back to the surface… She looked as if she was ready to help… Ready to change the world… Step over the Star Destroyers which are to fall from the sky and be devoured by vegetation… Together they could do that… It was all so clear.

Chanting came to an end. Seth "woke up". Everything came back to how it was. It took some time for him to sort out the mess in his head, but once he did, Sotira was standing above him and reaching for his hand.

'Ella aldi.' she said cheerfully. Seth stood up and Sotira grabbed his hand. The touch of her skin was, unusual to say the least. It was smooth, perfect as if she had never used them for work before, even though she obviously did.

...

Kainee and Vela spent hours looking for Seth, but so did the imperials. None were successful. Once some time has passed, it was clear to both sides that the river drag him to the waterfall and inevitable death. In the morning the girls returned to Mida's apartment with tears in their eyes. The rest didn't need to ask about what happened.

'He was a rookie… I knew that it was a bad idea…' said Argo. Enetin silenced him with a quiet, disgusted look. The outlander looked away with a bit of shame, probably not even honest. They all mourned, what they believed to be a next lost life, in silence. It was a new seed for they doubt. Everyone hopelessly spread around the apartment and the hideout.

...

Once in a few days, director Morin organized suppers for him and his most loyal subordinates. As most of the officers were already there, one place was empty. Agent Vanto came late because of the extensive searches for the intruders that took place earlier that day. He apologized and nervously sat on his chair, right next to the director.

Kaghatians kindly refused cooperation with a man as vile as him, but in consequence they were forced to work with barrel of the blaster put to their heads. The brown skinned people were given crude, uncomfortable clothes from the capital on Coruscant and their hair was cut. Of course the imperials had to have kaghatians look in an imperial manner if they were to serve them. Stormtroopers stood around the long table and carefully observed the terrified servants or at this point… even slaves.

'I understand that there was some trouble in the city, wasn't there?' Morin asked with an ironical, vile smile.

'Intruders in the spaceport, sir. Two kaghatians… and an outsider.' Vanto replied.

'Yes… I already had a small conversation with those two bucket heads who wouldn't even hit a wall in front of them… Of course they are in the arena now.' everyone stopped chattering and looked at the director nervously. They all new what "arena" meant. It was the main fundament of their loyality to director Morin. However, the disturbing silence did not affect him at all 'But tell me agent, what happened to the escapees?'

Vanto was worried about the answer we would have to give, but the director stared at him with a demanding look.

'The outsider carried something of great importance… It was quite obvious. They were found in a ruined ship, and once I examined it, I saw that the main data disc was gone. It was a hosnian DT-100 fighter - transport, designed to have a surveillance system, usually used by the employers to oversee their businesses. They must have taken the disc to understand what happened before the explosion. The kaghatians escaped, but the kid kid who carried the disc was shot and taken by the river. By now he is dead for sure, and the disc washed out.' after his explanation, agent awaited for the reply. Admiral looked at him suspiciously and then chuckled after a while.

'Good job agent Vanto. You did what you had to do and succeeded. However I must demand from you the further search for this insufferable resistance and the ultimately… I must demand your success. But now, enjoy your steak…' said the director while a kaghatian servant brought the meal for the agent. It was an authentic meat, something that locals were disgusted by. For thousands of years now, they kept eating synthetic meat, so as not to murder any innocent animals. With pain they looked at the imperials devouring flesh of something that once a living being.

To some point agent felt relieved, though there still was a long way ahead of him. But the director seemed to treat him as a friend. Vanto didn't know what to make of that. Whether to respond friendly or be wary of director's unpredictable nature.

Agent Vanto ate his steak in silence. Once he was done he stood up.

'I'll be going now. Thank you for the delicious supper, sir.' he said. Morin looked up and down on him and said with an almost ironical voice:

'So be it. Cut down on the booze agent… You smell of it.'

After hearing that Vanto quickly left with embarrassment. Admiral laughed.

With time more and more imperials left the table. Most with fear on their faces. Ultimately, only one female officer was left alone with the director and the stormtroopers.

'Admiral, there is something you should see.' she said.

'Really… What is that my dear?'

Officer took out her hologram emitter and put it on the table.

'In my free time I've been trying to solve something that kept bothering me. Why was that place discovered just a decade ago if it has existed for thousands of years now. I went through some of old republic data and found this…' officer said and turned on the blue hologram which showed a layout of a land. A dessert, shattered cliffs and high mountains. All empty and desolate.

'What is this?' Morin asked with confusement.

'It is… exactly this land.'

'It can't be… There is no river… No cities… Could it be faked?'

'No. Those are orbital scans of republic cruisers. Thirty years ago… this place wasn't here.'

'Peculiar… The mystery grows bigger and the answers are bound to be even more exciting. Thank you officer… uh…'

'Officer Landa… sir…'

...

Sotira showed Seth around the ancient city. She kept saying different words from time to time, that Seth still could not understand. It didn't matter anyway. Seth soaked in the atmosphere of monumental buildings, wonderful rotundas and ancient columns, architecture quite different from the one on the surface. It was quite hard to believe that those were thousands of years old. She greeted almost every single priest and priestess they met. Seth only nodded, so he would not look too unfriendly.

Despite their smiles, even Seth could see that there was something wrong with their humor. There was a certain atmosphere of sadness and mourning. This was how Sotira stood out. It almost seemed like the current situation did not affect her at all, but not as if she was ignorant. All of her positive emotions were overwhelmingly stronger than all the negative.

Priests and priestesses had no idea what time it was outside, but believed in their mere presumption of the night time. Almost all fireplaces were put down, besides a few exceptions and the biggest one in the middle of the city. Most slept in partially renovated buildings and it was such place where Sotira lead Seth in the end.

Kathia was waiting for them inside. She kindly showed him a decent, for such conditions, bedroll in a room on the second floor. Right next to it stood a mobile lamp, a few bottles and a crate.

However, she said nothing of any way out or leaving the cave, probably so as not to make Seth feel bad. As he laid down to test his bed, he waited for Kathia to say something more, but she didn't and only wished him goodnight.

About a couple of hours have passed. Seth didn't not sleep. He was worried for his friends on the surface. It was something he hasn't felt in a long time. Conscience, it suddenly became so real for him.

Seth was pretty sure that everyone was sleeping at this point and he did not wish to be idle, therefore he did something about it. Seth stood up and scavenged a crate next to the bedroll. Just as he expected, there was food inside, and the bottles next to it were full of water. He gathered all the supplies he would need for a long journey. Without any backpack he could use around, Seth reached for a metal bar in a corner of the room, ripped a piece of cloth from the bedroll and made a bindle out of them.

Ready to move out, he silently walked downstairs to a big room where about five priests and priestesses were sleeping, including Kathia.

He couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. Seth looked around nervously, but saw nothing. He just ignored that kept on sneaking to the exit, without realizing that he has missed something. A pair of yellowish and brown eyes lurking at him from a dark corner. As he approached the exit, Sotira suddenly stepped into his way. She looked at him without any suspicion or disdain, but again the innocent friendliness. She held a full backpack in her hand and a belt full of equipment was wrapped around her waist.

'Sotira, what are you doing?' Seth asked with a whisper.

'Voitha'da.' she replied enthusiastically. Seth sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

'Come on, you know I don't speak that.'

Sotira pointed her finger upwards.

'Anoue.' she said and put a backpack on her back.

'Oh no, no, no… You can't go. You belong here with your people… With your mother.'

Sotira looked at Seth with disappointment for a while, until she looked at a shelf next to her mother's bed and reached for a book lying on top of it. She quickly searched through the contents and showed pages of kaghatian writing to Seth and pointed at one of the words. It was written in a local alphabet known as aubelius. Seth didn't know how to read that and looked at her with confusement.

'Help' said Sotira.

'Alright… You want… To help me?' Seth asked with help of an exaggerated gesticulation. Sotira nodded her head enthusiastically as a reply. Seth looked at Kathia and asked:

'What about you mother?' he might have said it too loud, as Kathia slowly began waking up, as she tried to get up, Sotira raised her hand and whispered:

'Ilemi ma… Ilemi…' as she said those words, Kathia fell back on her bed and slept once again. Seth looked at Sotira with amazement and small dose of fear. She put a hand on her chest and still smiled.

'Ma eskalida irenia.'

'This is crazy…' Seth mumbled, but Sotira grabbed is hand and lead him outside.

'Ella aldi mou!'

The two sneaked out from the city to a great crack in the wall that poured out a small stream of water. Once they were in a safe distance, Sotira summoned the ball of of light and crouched down. Seth stopped and looked around with confusement. Sotira had two bottles attached to her belt. She took the bigger one and began to fill it up. Once she noticed the confusement of her companion, she pointed at the place where Seth's wound was. He understood it, but at the same time he did not. It was the water from those caves that healed his wounds so fast, but what kind of water was that then?

Having filled the water, Sotira stood up and carried on, leading Seth deeper into the tunnel and the ball of light following them. They carried on through dozens of corridors, seemingly random. But apparently Sotira knew what she was doing. She had to…

They reached a dead end. Seth stopped and looked around with an ironical smile.

'So… What now?' he asked. Sotira crouched down and wiped a dust off the ground, then tapped it a couple of times. Rocky ground cracked and collapsed, making a hole. Seth leaned carefully and looked inside. There was nothing but deep darkness down there. Sotira pointed down inside, as if they were supposed to jump down there. Seth stared at the darkness worryingly the idea seemed ridiculous, but she looked so sure. It took him a while to make a decision. The fall was not encouraging, but that was a kaghatian priestesses leading him there.

Sotira saw the uncertainty on Seth's face and decided to make it easier for him. She stood up, waved friendly and jumped down the hole. She disappeared in the darkness as quick as a flash and too long after that a loud splash of the water. There was no backing out now. Seth held his bundle tight in his hands and without think of the consequences descended to the mysterious hole.

As Seth fell into a deep pool of water, a bizarre feeling came over him, almost as if he was no longer in the water, but outer space. In that almost weightless state, while floating in the darkness, he has lost the sense of time. It could have been seconds or minutes. Once he regained his full consciousness, Seth realized that he was sinking. Fortunately a hand reached for him and helped him get out from the water.

Seth wiped the water of his face and opened his eyes. Sotira sat over him, on an edge of a great pool, still underground. He sighed in relief and rested his entire body on the floor. Sotira laughed and so did Seth.

'That was not how this week was supposed to look like…'


	4. Chapter 4 - Embrace Thy Kin

**-4-**

 **Embrace Thy Kin**

„Listen to my words carefully, but do not follow them blindly. Analyze them, contemplate on their meaning, and take them into your practice only when you truly understand that I want all the best for you."

Finally real rays of warm sunlight appeared reflecting on smooth walls of the cave. Seth and Sotira were excited to walk out in a bottom of a deep canyon. Above them, a pink sky. The teenage priestess started dancing out of happiness. It was quite understandable for Seth, she spent more than a year in a cave after all. Sotira splashed the water from a stream with vivid swings of her legs and her eyes closed, still adjusting to the brightness.

Seth examined the area. The canyon was thin and high. The stream lead up to a high waterfall. It seemed somewhat clear that they had to climb it up, go up the river. However Seth was confused about where he was. It looked like the end of the one and only kaghatian river. How far did they get?

While Sotira was having fun, Seth stood still with confusement. She grabbed him by the hands and encouraged to dance, splash the water. He did as she wanted, unwillingly though. He lacked the enthusiasm of simplicity.

Early in the morning, agent Vanto set out from the barracks to take care of his business in time. All of imperial facilities lied on a lone piece of cliff, looking almost like an island, separated from the rest of the city. On the bridge that connected both places, several imperial officers awaited for him with messages and news, most of the inessential.

'Agent Vanto, we still have issues with those locals not understanding what "registration" mean.' said one of them.

'Didn't I tell you to screw off with that and come back with something that could help my investigation…' said Vanto with disdain. Without even looking at the man.

'Agent, are confiscations helpful to the investigation?' asked another one. Vanto stopped with curiosity and looked at the officer.

'Confiscations, huh? What have you got?'

'Again, a secret stash of liquor. However this time it was a particularly well hidden stash and an arrested local who was quite defensive about it.'

'Interesting… I will look into it' Vanto said and carried on. Other officers kept bothering him and he send them off. All walked away with humility except for one, a lady carrying a data pad.

'Agent Vanto!' she yelled from a dispersing crowd.

'I told you I am busy!' he replied.

'Admiral ordered me to talk to you!'

Upon hearing that Vanto stopped and smoothly turned around his toe. It was unwise to ignore anything associated with the director. Agent approached the lady officer and examined her.

'Well, well… So mister Morin believes you can help me, officer… Landa.'

'Admiral Morin believes I can help you see the bigger picture.'

'And what do you believe?' Vanto asked with a bizarre, flattering voice.

'I believe we can help each other.' Landa said with a smile, but then took a deep breath and sniffed a couple of times.

'Oh… Let me guess, I stink of booze?' Vanto asked ironically.

'No… I didn't…' Officer began but agent interrupted her:

'It's alright. I was just about to go and get some more. You want to come officer?'

'No… Agent, I need you to see something, sir… We have discovered a mysterious wall…'

'A wall? Well that's helpful for sure.' Vanto joked, but officer's irritation grew bigger until she looked around if there weren't any imperial witnesses around and pushed the agent against a stone fence. She whispered to him aggressively:

'Alright… Listen you... I don't care that your Security Bureau insignia outranks me and that Morin gives you a free hand to do whatever you want around the city… There is something strange going on around here. This place does not appear on any records older than twenty years… Those people seem to live in a completely different world and deep underground we found something we cannot eve comprehend… Just come with me and let me do my job. I don't want to know what happens if the boss gets disappointed…' once Landa understood what she did, she backed off nervously. Threatening an imperial agent was not a good idea for a simple officer. After a long and uncomfortable silence Vanto chuckled.

'Convincing… Tell me where to go and I will meet you there in an hour.' he said. Landa sighed with a relief, straightened her back and turned on her data pad. The two continued walking in direction of the city center.

Disguised and unnoticeable, Kainee eavesdropped on a view balcony right next to the bridge. Unlike to the rest of the group, Seth's seeming death did not disdain her, but quite the contrary… It filled her with even more hatred for the Empire and that particular agent. She tried to fight those instincts, for they were not the kaghatian way. Unfortunately, Kainee was born into the imperial reign and in her early youth she never got a chance to learn about kyllogynai from priests and priestesses. That did not make her evil, but for sure served as an origin for her moral struggle.

Kainee dispersed her depressing thoughts and focused on an objective she has given to herself. After adjusting her cape, she set out two follow the two imperials.

...

High walls of the canyon were bright, but still covered the Twin Stars. Seth and Sotira finally reached the top of a high waterfall. The ongoing path lead to some buildings in the distance, still located deep down between the rocks. The two looked at the trails of civilization with cheerful relief and ran towards it. Only later did they realize that there was no reason to be happy.

Seth and Sotira snuck behind the building and from around the corner looked upon the city. The streets were patrolled by stormtroopers and the sounds of imperial machinery echoed through the canyon. The city was located right when the canyon began, on calm slopes leading out to the open and of course, the river in the middle of the city, much thinner and shallower than in Khalos.

There was only one way out, straight through the city… Full of imperials… All ordered to arrest men, women and children that participated in cult of Khal Kaghatia. Sotira's clothing was still, quite revealing and her tattoos very easily recognizable. There was no other way but to sneak out.

Sotira and Seth nodded their heads to each other with understanding and entered the city, carefully lurking around the corners and walking through thin alleys. Just as in Khalos, the streets were mostly empty, what gave an eerie feeling to the city in the canyon. The two snuck through halfway of the city and encountered a problem. A long alley a]crossing the city, patrolled by groups of stormtroopers and an imperial chicken walker, that stomped on the ground violently. Seth and Sotira hid in a doorway to one of the houses and looked around nervously.

'Damn it. What do we do know…' Seth asked while lurking at the imperials approaching closer and closer. Sotira suddenly calmed down and leaned on metal doors 'We should get out of here.' Seth said and made a step out. Sotira stopped him, grabbed his arm and pulled to the doors. She showed him pointing finger as if she wanted him to wait. And so he did for a while, being once again confused by the actions of her companion.

Suddenly the doors opened and the two fell inside, they crawled further into a dark building and the doors closed behind them. They looked up. The little light that was inside shed a light on a face of a young kaghatian man. He looked at Sotira with disbelief and excitement.

'I cannot believe it… A priestess!' He groaned with happiness. Sotira noticed his excitement and stood up in front him. He hugged her enthusiastically and they held in each other for a brief while 'I have missed your kind for so long.'

It was a sort of uncomfortable situation for Seth. The two have probably seen each other for the first time in their lives. It was an openness that Seth was never accustomed to and neither anyone from the outer worlds. The kaghatian then turned to Seth and approached to hug him as well. The different skin color made no difference. He could have accepted it or not. What kind of impression would he make if he didn't? He had to. Seth uncomfortably hugged the stranger. It was short and not as bad he thought. Only after such a friendly welcoming the kaghatian said:

'My name is Groucho. And you are?'

'I am Seth…'

'And what is your name?' Groucho asked again while looking at Sotira. She didn't answer and looked back at him with a confused smile 'Hello…?'

'She doesn't speak galactic basic.' Seth explained. Groucho smiled to Sotira and asked once more:

'Posa a leana?'

'Ennoeite "linea"?' Sotira replied.

'Nai… linea.'

'Eimai Sotirae Metaurenia.'

'Well…' Groucho began 'That is not kaghatian neither.' both him and Seth were confused. Sotira turned away from them for a while and began examining the dark house.

'For real…' Seth asked.

'It must be the old kaghatian…. A very old dialect… But it doesn't matter...' Groucho said and looked at her. Sotira summoned the ball of flaming light to lighten the room. The host nervously approached her with the intention to cover the light 'Onus…' as he touched the ball it burned his finger. He backed them of with pain 'They will see us.' he said and pointed at the window. Sotira understood that and grabbed the ball with no pain and held it until it disappeared. Groucho continued 'Like I said, it doesn't matter. What matters is that a priestesses of Khal Kaghatia are still out there… And that one visited us. Others should meet her as well!'

'Listen… We need to get to Khalos as fast as we can.' Seth said boldly.

'Khalos? That is a long way.'

'Long way… What do you mean? How long… Where are we anyway?'

'We are in the far south, in the city of Farangha… Days away from Khalos.'

'How is that possible…' Seth mumbled and looked at Sotira mysteriously 'A couple of hours ago we were in caverns right under Khalos.'

'You mean the sanctuary? Ancient Khalos?' Groucho asked with excitement.

'Yeah… I guess.' Seth replied with a shallow voice. Groucho laughed in disbelief.

'Do you even know how lucky you are, dude?'

'I landed there by accident.'

'Well… It must Khal's providence then… No worries, I will help you get out from here. It is not safe for you here anyway. All non-kaghatian that are not one of them course suspicions and Sotira… Well I think that is obvious.'

...

In the suburbs of Khalos, stormtroopers ravaged an entire house with it's owner looking at it with sadness. He was held in handcuffs. Next to him and a group of imperials, stood two crates.

Agent Vanto drove over in his speeder. Officer Landa sat next to him on passenger's seat.

'Wait here.' He said to her while leaving the speeder. Vanto examined the crates and opened them. Inside lied about a dozen of small bottles, secured from breaking by ridiculous amount of foam. When no one was looking, agent grabbed one of them and hid it in a sack on his belt.

Despite the resistance of the stormtrooper guarding him, the kaghatian tried to approach agent Vanto.

'You can't take it! You do not know what you are doing!' he yelled. Agent tried to ignore him and began walking away. Kaghatian started acting even more desperate.

'No! Please! You can't!' in reply, Vanto turned around angrily and straightened his back, making himself much taller than the kaghatian.

'Listen you little anarchist…' Vanto began with a threatening voice and pointed at his insignia plaque 'This is the sign of what I can and cannot do. And it says that I can do basically anything I want. So cut the whining, because it won't make a difference.' agent finished and turned his back on the kaghatian who asked hopelessly:

'Will at least keep it safe? Please?' Agent Vanto stopped. It was quite an unusual attachment to a stack of liquor, intriguing.

'Take it to the werehouse.' He ordered to his stormtroopers and a lieutenant. Vanto came back to the speeder and drove off. He and officer Landa spend the entire road in an uncomfortable silence.

...

The next day passed and as the Twin Stars set down, coloring the sky with purple and orangish red, kaghatians slowly snuck to Groucho's small house in the middle of Farangha. Seth observed the entire event from the corner of the room, with a hot drink in one hand and a snack in another.

It was quite hard to believe what kind of fuss one person could make. About fifty kaghatians squeezed into the building and surrounded a small fireplace. Next to it sat Sotira and spoke to them in her language. They understood some of the words, probably enough to comprehend the meaning of her speech. Their faces showed unbound happiness and excitement.

Seth didn't understand what Sotira spoke about, but he had a feeling that it was something beautiful. It was bizarre for him. Such things did not bother him for a long time, but the few recent days in the land of the Twin Stars made him appreciate beauty, made it intrigue him. Only now did Seth realize, that he was happy about Sotira coming with him. She was an interesting character and he understood that it was an honor to be her companion.

Once the speech was over, every visitor waited in line to hug the priestess. It was something that kept intriguing Seth as well. It seemed as if it was a such a common act that it served as a substitute for handshakes, however it was something more than ordinary kind welcoming. There was something intimate about it when kaghatians held each other in their arms, even if they were strangers. Was that love? It may have been to some degree. A love for all life, as proclaimed by Khal Kaghatia. Perhaps Sotira's speech made the crows more sensitive to it. Seth wish he could understand her. He felt like an outsider. Different looks, different mind, no knowledge of language.

However, once everyone was done, Sotira walked through the crowd to the dark corner where Seth was sitting.

'Den yparchoun senfoi.' she said and embraced him with compassion. The touch of her soft skin was relieving. He felt as if he was one of them… He felt true happiness for the first time in many years.

Groucho slowly approached the two and waited until Sotira let go of Seth, but she held him for as long as he needed her to.

'If I understood it, Sotira meant "there are no strangers".' Groucho said. Seth looked at him and the priestesses.

'Thank you…' He said emotionally to both of them.

'I don't mean to throw you out, but if you are willing to get out from the city unseen, now is the time. Sooner or later the ignorant will know of the crowd here. You two sneak out through the back door and go up the river.' Groucho warned.

'Dalemai.' Sotira said and nodded to him. He smiled and said:

'I should tell you that further north you will encounter the sea of Limani. Do not go around it. Those places are swarming with the ignorant, but they do not sail. On the southern coast you will find a shack with a family living inside of it. They will sail you across the waters to the city of Limani. From that place you will have to trust Sotira, she seems to know what she is doing.'

'We will do so… And thank you again.' Seth said. Groucho hugged him for the last time and said:

'The honor is mine. I hope to see you again someday. If there will be any way I could help in Khalos, I will be trying to get there as well.'

The sky was still quite bright, but the canyon was already sunken in darkness, to their advantage. While the imperials with their flashlights began to investigate Groucho's house the two snuck out with their supplies. There was no good reason for them to do anything bad to him, or at least Seth hoped so while him and Sotira snuck through the stairs leading up the thin streets on the edge of the town.

It didn't take long for them to leave the canyon to sandy dunes and once they did, they looked south. The Twin Stars were just setting on the horizon. For Seth it was indeed a beautiful view, however Sotira was frozen for a while and tears began to slide down her face.

'Kyria mou…' She mumbled. It took a while for Seth understand what was going on inside her head. The Twin Stars were obviously a symbol of two basic kaghatian values, beauty and kindness. They carry an important meaning for them, especially priests and priestesses of Khal Kaghatia. Sotira hasn't seen their light in years. However, they were standing out in the open and had to hide. Seth gently grabbed Sotira's arm and directed her towards the bushes around the river.

In the distance stood a group of steep rocky hills, which seemed like a safe place to make a camp. Seth and Sotira spent the entire time until the nightfall to get there and set up a miniature camp with two blankets on the sand and a simple fireplace. The hills were very close to the river, so there was a decent amount of flora surrounding them and giving an even safe cover.

...

Officer Landa led agent Vanto through mysterious cobblestone corridors leading deeper and deeper underground.

'Was someone really bored or they had a good reason to come down here.' he said ironically. She did not answer. 'How do you people even find such places…'

Once the time of their journey already began feeling ridiculous, the two entered a medium sized room, full of imperial scientists. About a dozen of strong lamps were pointed at a big, flat and seemingly empty wall.

'Well… I have to admit… An impressive find.' Agent said again with irony. Officer Landa gave him an irritated look, but strayed from saying anything unfortunate…

'It would be just a wall if only every single wasn't somehow unnatural.'

'And what is that supposed to mean?' Vanto asked. Landa approached one of the computers standing against an opposite, normal, wall.

'It is unnaturally flat. Crafting something like this out from this kind of stone would be impossible. After a longer examination my scientists have found miniature cracks, but recently I have discovered that it is something more, a very precise carving…'

'Yeah… Very interesting…'

'Please, just hold on agent… After running some scans we found out that inside of them lies some sort of substance we do not really understand, but once we finally got the entire picture…' officer stopped and pressed a button on the computer. A blue hologram appeared in front of them, showing what seemed to be the picture hidden in the wall. It was a beautiful woman with a very long hair, standing on some kind of a rock and surrounded by circular ornaments. In her asymmetrically held hands she carried something that looked like stars, and under her was some kind of text written in a mysterious alphabet, but not the kaghatian one.

'Well, she looks attractive… But why are showing me this?' Vanto kept asking.

'Admiral Morin asked me to show you the bigger picture. We must know what we are dealing with and the kaghatian are not willing to share much about their culture with us. And like I said, there are plenty of bizarre thing going on around. Like for example… Why is this wall here at all?'

'Did you at least translate the text below her?'

'Barely… I spent weeks working on it. I am still not sure if I got the meaning right and there are two words I still cannot translate… "Her will stands on heights of...Gipha, possesses the… Kyllogynai… to release the doors".'

'And who might "she" be?'

'Well, Khal Kaghatia I presume. Apparently their entity…' Landa said, but Vanto did not listen to her and mumbled under his nose:

'...to open any doors… You think those are doors, officer? This wall?'

'I thought of that, but we checked every possible option and there is no possibility. Maybe it is something entirely different, some of the old kaghatian texts spoke of a mysterious and powerful power source… I am not sure. However this wall has a meaning and I am quite sure it is very important.'

'However…' Vanto said ironically 'It seems to me that it takes us no further into any kind of understanding…'

'It needs patience, agent… And perhaps some inspiration.'

Agent Vanto chuckled ironically and approached the actual wall. There were no new leads, no urgencies in the city… for now. He didn't really have anything better to do than this, so he sat down, pulled out a bottle and tried to examine seemingly empty wall with his eyes. His lips gently touched the bottle of his new kaghatian liquor, but he didn't take a sip… for a longer time.

...

'Where is she?' Mida asked worryingly.

'Don't worry… She is a handy kaghatian.' Enetin calmed her down.

'It is late.'

'That I cannot deny.' Enetin sighed and looked at the fireplace right next t0 them. It was the only source of light left in the big, dark apartment, for Argo and Vela already went to sleep.

'I am just afraid…' Mida whispered and took Enetin's hands. 'Seth is gone after such a short time… And Kainee… is so lost. She might go after them… I don't want her to do that…' Mida's head fell on Enetin's arm and began to sob. He caressed her puffy hair for a while, until Kainee suddenly rushed into the apartment through the main doors. Mida suddenly stood up and embraced her.

'Kainee!' She yelled. 'What is going on?'

'The ignorant… They found something underground!'

'The sanctuary?' Enetin asked 'That would be almost impossible.'

'No… I do not think so. It must be some kind of archeological find, but I do not know what that is. There is plenty of security at the entrance.'

'We will need to get there.'

'They will never let a kaghatian in.'

'Can you get us the white armor then?'


	5. Chapter 5 - Mysteries of the Wall

**-5-**

 **Mysteries of "The Wall"**

"Free yourselves from honor, release from the grip of pride... Drop the crowns. Care for each other, not those illusions."

The rays of morning light snuck between the rocks, shining on Seth's face. He woke up with the Twin Stars blinding him, so he raised up, yawned and stretched his arms. The sky was clear and bright. It wasn't the most comfortable night of his life, but Seth woke up in a good mood, thanks to Sotira's kindness.

'Morning…' He said with his eyes still closed. There was no answer, just the silence and the sound of the distant river. He wiped his eyes and opened them. Sotira was gone. Her bedroll was empty and her backpack gone. Seth was nervous about what that could mean, he stood up and began looking for her.

'Sotira!' He yelled on the way through bushes and rocks. Ultimately he noticed something in the distance. That was her backpack… and her clothes lying loosely on the ground. He approached them with confusement and looked around. Suddenly he realized that right behind the bushes was pool, surrounded by rocky cliffs and in the middle naked Sotira slowly stepping into the water.

For a moment Seth was paralyzed, however intrigued by the ornaments of tattoos on her back. He looked at her until she noticed him and turned her head around with a big silly smile. To his surprise, she showed embarrassment and continued walking calmly as she did before, apparently feeling comfortable with or without Seth watching. Actually it was him who felt shame and turned away from the priestess.

'Alimea.' Sotira said.

'Sorry…' Seth apologized and began walking away with embarrassment. Sotira peeked at him with curiosity, confused by his discomfort. The only thing that prevented him from staying were the social norms that he acquired when growing up in the outer worlds. There it obviously would be a kind of violation of privacy, however Seth often forgot that those rules no longer applied in the land of the Twin Stars. Here a term of "privacy" carried a different meaning. Nevertheless, instincts took over him.

Seth waited for Sotira back in the camp. Once she returned with her hair dripping wet. The two carried on with their journey under the Twin Stars. Trekking through the bushes along the river was complicated, so they walked out the sands of the grand dune sea, but kept the green flora in their sight.

Seth with his bindle kept walking out to the front, being in much more of a hurry than his companion. Sotira on the other hand, practiced a much more relaxed way of traveling, as she was cheerfully jumping from on leg to another and making some dance moves from time to time.

For now there was nothing more on the horizon and that foretold days of journey ahead.

...

The other day agent Vanto came back to the excavations, however not to ponder the questions about the mural. It was a mission. He kept walking along the wall, back and forward, with the bottle in his hand all the time. Vanto was carrying it, ready to have a drink, but did not throughout the entire last day. It was tempting, but for some reason he felt restrained, almost as if he was afraid of what would happen if he did. A bizarre and silly thought in his perspective, feeling as if he began losing his reason.

Imperial workers kept widening the excavation and digging around the edges of the wall. Officer Landa kept digging through old kaghatian books and data on her computer. From the time agent Vanto spent with her, he could see how she differed from other imperials. Most of them, including himself, cared not for the kaghatian culture and decided to achieve control by a show of power. Though her goal was the same, she knew that the only way to truly take control over this land, was to understand the fundamentals of kaghatian insubordination and with that knowledge collapse their culture. It was a rather tactical solution to strike the fundamentals rather than the entire structure.

However, kaghatians seemed to know the dangers and hid their culture as much as they could, only for the imperials obviously. Landa has to discover it by herself, with the supervision of an imperial agent who drank away his personal issues and sadness. But this time he was sober. Vanto hasn't drunk in a day, even though he had a chance to that entire time.

'Agent…' officer Landa started nervously 'With all due respect… How come director Morin lets you work in the way you do?'

Vanto could've answered that easily, he knew the reason, but was also ashamed of revealing personal truths about himself, about his trauma and pain. If he was to tell the truth, sooner or later it would all go down to the topic of his family, which he wanted to forget so as to easy the sadness.

'Admiral Morin… Likes to do things differently.' Vanto replied with an intent to draw her attention away from his drinking issues 'He tends to break the imperial etiquette often. You may have noticed that there are none subordinates even close to his rank in this land. No vice director, no generals and so.'

'Why?'

'I haven't been here for so long to know, but if I had to guess… The arena.' Vanto said with a trembling voice.

'So, according to your privileges and military hierarchy… You are next in the chain of command after director Morin.'

'It would appear so, officer. But this is no time for chitchat. Get back to work.' Vanto said with a sudden change of tone and walked away. He pretended to know of this, while in fact he didn't. It suddenly struck him that if something was to happen to director Morin, he could legally take control over the entire land, until a different high ranking officer would arrive. At first it seemed like a big responsibility, but looking at how the present leader handled it, being such a kind of "dictator" was an interesting thought.

Despite being officially part of the Galactic Empire, this place was still quite isolated, with the higher superiors caring little about the newfound branch of cities on a planet such as Tatooine. Thanks to that, there was a lack of consequence in Morin's doings, for example designing a punishment as cruel as "the arena". However, unlike different planets and places of this kind around the galaxy, this one has been heavily militarized, which was justified by existence of an "anarchistic nation". No one on the outside knew who kaghatians were and how harmless they are, so in the end the Imperials here received the military aid with director Morin as the main leader. However, the military never came there to pacify kaghatians, but dominate and break their spirit. With such power and control, one could truly become a dictator.

Agent Vanto tried to kill the time with his fantasies, or rather plans for the future. He did that until an unusual patrol of stormtroopers entered the hall. Three of them walking besides each other. It was a sloppy disguise, as urban patrols consisted specifically of two stormtroopers. However, it was exactly what Vanto expected. The stormtroopers looked at the wall with untypical curiosity and one of them, very obviously, turned his head towards the hologram of Landa's computer.

With an angle of his eye, Vanto observed the three, in a way that would not scare them off. He didn't like doing this, he would rather trap them here and take the helmets off their faces. He approached Landa with irritation and whispered to her:

'Are you sure this is a good idea, officer?'

'If we arrest them, a different resistance will come anyway… And at this moment they are more useful than dangerous to us. We must take an advantage of this occasion.' officer said and looked straight at Vanto 'Admiral supports this plan. Your contact has proven himself believable…' she staggered her speech for a while 'I need to know… It is so hard being aware that there is something more, without the knowledge of what it is.'

'Those are nothing more than old legends.'

'But agent, what if that is not the case. What if those secrets hid something great… Perhaps a certain power. If so, revealing it could change the Empire, maybe even draw Emperor's attention.' she said enthusiastically. Vanto was sceptical about her approach, but accepted the small percentage of possibility.

'Maybe you are right… Maybe you are delusional. We shall see. Gather contact's reports and try making something out of them.' he said and walked away, back to the wall.

The bizarre patrol walked back and forth, ultimately leaving the hall before they should. It was so apparent that two of them didn't know how to carry a blaster. The overall disguise was so sloppy, that it made Vanto cringe.

...

Sound of the doors opening spread around the flat. Mida and Vela walked out from the kitchen and looked at the entrance. Three figures in white armors walked in, with the third still peeking at the street to make sure no one has seen them.

'It is you… Is it not?' Mida asked nervously. Enetin, Kainee and Argo took off the helmets.

'No. Let me see your "identification".' Enetin said ironically. All kaghatians in the room laughed while he embraced Mida. Argo just chuckled ironically, probably finding this joke not that funny. However Kainee quickly interrupted the laugh:

'Alright, now that we can talk safely… What was that place?' her eyes lied on Enetin, who was indeed the most knowledgeable of them all. He was soon besieged by the sight of every person around him.

'I have no idea…' Enetin revealed with embarrassment. All were confused. They honestly believe they would receive the answer at this very moment. However Argo was not only confused, he felt uncomfortable and afraid, hoping that no one would notice that.

'For real?' He asked nervously.

'I have seen many things, but I have never even read about anything like this… However, there was something else I have seen. They must have scanned that wall and discovered what it represents. Ornaments that were older anything around the land, Khal Kaghatia was there as well, wielding the Twin Stars… And a text written in a ancient kaghatian, if I am correct :"Afti ou steketai stin koryfi tou Gipha, aske mia kyllogynai ou borek na anoxei opoiadia paastai".'

'She with her will, stands on height of Gipha and carries the Kyllogynai… to reveal the doors?' Mida asked.

'Almost. In ancient kaghatian there are plenty of meanings fit for one word… That is why it overlaps with our modern tongue… She who stands of peak of Gipha wields the Kyllogynai to open any doors. Kyllogynai meaning magic or power.'

'Do you at least know what it means? What Gipha has to do with all this?' Argo asked, hiding his nerves, but Enetin only shook his head and said:

'It feels so bizarre that they discovered something within Khalos we knew nothing about… But this is the truth. I will go to the secret library tomorrow and maybe I will find anything that could shed some light upon This mystery. If we have to, we will have to get back there.'

'Are you kidding? This is getting more and more dangerous.' Mida said.

'I know… I know it is not safe, but it is neither right to be idle. The ancient philosophers would say otherwise. We need to find a way to restore… Our prosperity. For Seth and Khal Kaghatia.'

...

The wall became more and more mesmerizing with every minute Vanto spent looking at it. The small precisely carved lines were a result of incredible craftsmanship. He appreciated it even though he was no specialist. The bottle in his hand, still untouched. Officer Landa came back to the hall. He looked at her for a while and realized how late it was. Everyone else already left. He looked back at the wall.

'We've got the message sir. There are bad news and good news.' she said.

'Bad news first.' Vanto responded quickly without even looking at the officer.

'The kaghatians know just as much about the mural as we do. They… were not that much of a help.'

'That much… So they were of some help?'

'That's the only good news I've got for you sir…. Now we know the approximate translation of the text.' Landa said enthusiastically. Vanto chuckled with hopeless irony 'She who stands on the peak of Gipha, wields the magic to open any doors. I still don't understand that one word.' Upon hearing that Vanto chuckled even louder. Landa lowered her head in shame and humility.

'Tomorrow in the morning I will report of your failure to director Morin and in the evening we will storm their hideout. You are dismissed officer.'

Landa walked away with embarrassment and knowledge that her career was to end the next day, quite possibly together with her life. She left the hall behind Vanto's back.

Now being alone, he took a chair that Landa used for work, out it in front of the mural and once again held the bottle of liquor close to his mouth, as if he was ready to drink it. This time he really was. Vanto flipped the bottle and took a big sip. Surprisingly the beverage sustained somewhat cold temperature. The taste was just a little sweet and very refreshing, almost as if it wasn't alcohol. That immediately made him feel better, even somehow empowered.

'That… is good.' He said to himself, but deep inside knew it wa an understatement.

Vanto sighed and relaxed. He leaned back and closed his eyes. He felt good, despite being infuriated by the incompetence of his subordinates a moment ago.

However, he suddenly felt as if something was wrong. Even through the closed eyelids he could see some sort of light, Vanto opened his eyes and looked at the mural with genuine shock. The tight carvings began shine brightly with a golden light, outlining the entire shape that was not well visible to human eyes before. The circular shapes surrounded a beautiful woman standing on a hill in the middle. With the light, vivid colors also appeared on the wall, as if they were invisible before. Girl's eyes were closed and her face smiled calmly.

Vanto didn't know what to make of this. He tried finding a logical solution… But there wasn't any. It was paranormal.

'What…' He mumbled. Upon speaking those words the most unexpected of things happened. The girl's face started moving. She opened her eyes and the mural started staring at him.

Agento Vanto fell of the chair in fear and from the ground looked straight back at the girl. She only kept blinking at him, with a worried expression. He looked back at the bottle of liquor and thought that he understood this bizarre occurrence.

'Oh yes… Really good.' He said to himself and stood up. But the girl kept looking at him as if she was worried. It was so convincing that it couldn't have been an illusion. Vanto had a grand dilemma. Has he lost his mind? It would be so ridiculous to try to speak with a mural in the stone, but having considered the fact that there was no one around, he did it anyway.

'What is this?' He asked. The girl only blinked 'Yeah… Of course… You are just a moving image…'

Vanto attempted to turn away, but before he did the girl started blinking nervously. He turned back to her with confusement.

'Can you understand me?' He asked. She blinked. 'Blink your eyes two times if you can.' And she did. Vanto chuckled in disbelief. 'What in the galaxy…' He mumbled and backed off in fear. The mural actually understood him. Vanto didn't comprehend what was going. He wanted to leave and run away. It couldn't have been real. He deeply believed that he just needs to wait until the hallucinations are gone. However, after leaving the shining beauty behind his back and walking up to the surface, he saw nothing else out of the ordinary. He tried not to think of it and returned to the barracks late in the night. Vanto went to have a rest and he didn't even manage to get intoxicated.

...

Between two high dunes, with just a few green bushes around, Seth and Sotira lied down, admiring crystal clear night sky. There were no lights of the imperial facilities in the area to pollute the beautiful sight of shining stars and nebulae.

Seth kept talking to his companion for the last few hours. She still didn't understand him, obviously, but listened carefully with compassion. That made him feel more comfortable around her. He felt like they were bonding, though they could not talk. They didn't need to. She easily read his face and perhaps even more. Seth felt bizarre vibes, strange energy… Something he did not comprehend, but at the same time he did. There was certain degree of abstraction to all things happening to him, to people he spent time with and places he has been to.

'... and then I ran away from the pirates to that system.' He kept talking and pointing at different stars while Sotira was silent. 'It had a moon with great jungles and trees as high as mountains… But no outer worlds are as beautiful as this land of the Twin Stars… I never even realized how much I missed this place… And you kaghatians… You are the only ones who have been kind to me.' He said and looked at Sotira, who kept smiling to him 'Efchatistom…'

'Efcharistoe…' She corrected him with a chuckle.

'Efcharistoe.' He repeated.

Afterwards came a silence. The two could not even hear the wind between such dunes. Ultimately Sotira started chanting, something that was reminiscent of a lullaby. Seth started dreaming quickly, even before he fell asleep.

...

Officer Landa woke up later than usual. With her sleepy eyes, she looked around the bedroom through loose ginger hair hanging over her face. She didn't want to get up, step out through the door, start the new day… The future ahead was scary. Landa was terrified of sharp claws, long teeth… the stare of the beast. How was that possible? Such cruelty among the their own. Was that supposed to be the peak of civilization?

Landa began thinking of what she could do. Stay here? They would come for her. Try to apologize? Admiral Morin was merciless. Was it a good idea to run away? Betray the Empire? Betray herself? Landa has committed her entire life to the imperial cause. She wasn't strong enough to throw it all away because of that one director, but neither did she want to die. Being so lost and confused, Landa did nothing about it and carried on with her routine that was so deeply rooted in her mind.

She sat down on the bed lazily. Her rumpled uniform hanged on the chair next to a desk that was was drowning in confiscated kaghatian books. Landa got off the bed and began her morning exercise of stretching, as if it was just an ordinary day. At least the beautiful view from the balcony lightened her mood. Green gardens outside in the distance gave even more colors to the city of Khalos. Despite all of her duties and the attitude she should have as an Imperial, those sights were moving to her. It was somewhat artistic that her hair matched the color of the sky.

Once she warmed up, it was time to get dressed. After long hours of work Landa would always take her uniform for ironing in the evening, but the day before she didn't truly care about that and went to sleep as soon as she could. The rumpled outfit did not look impressive, but Landa had no time to correct that. She tied the hair, put on the uniform and then went on to look for her rank insignia that detached from the suit, because of how carelessly she threw it there. Having found it under the bed, she put on the shoes and officer's hat, so she could finally leave the building as an official imperial lieutenant.

Landa stayed in a kaghatian hotel that was take over by her kind. The original owners were mysteriously gone. Now it served as a housing for many officers residing in Khalos. Giving up on the make up this day made her look a bit more miserable than she already did, though more real for sure.

As Landa walked outside, she realized something. It was long past morning. That either meant that there was no consequence of her incompetence… Or that for some reason agent Vanto chose not to report the director. Deep inside she felt a relieving belief that everything is going to be fine. To make sure she strolled down to the cliff districts and the imperial facilities where director Morin stationed.

As she examined the place, director left one of the buildings and noticed her. He smiled to her kindly and nodded, before going about his business and ignoring he presence. That meant her second assumption was real. She wonder what could have changed Vanto's mind and ultimately realized that he might have gotten too drunk to report to his superior.

However the man himself has proven her wrong. Vanto drove his speeder bike out from the facility through the bridge. He only peeked at her for a brief moment. She could clearly see how sober and focused he was. Instead of disdain, he expressed shame with his look and then drove off, avoiding any contact.

Landa had no time to feel confused. Although she didn't look like it, deep inside she was jumping in relieving happiness. She could safely get back to work.

...

He didn't know the exact number, but the city he has been admiring for the last two hours was home to many kaghatians. He felt as if all of they were all looking at him with disgust, f0r what he has done was wrong. He was weak as easily breakable. Shame devoured Argo from the inside.

What would have happened next? He would have to look at the arrest of the people that helped him in need, perhaps receive an amnesty if the talks with the Imperials go well… But what then? What kind of life would that be, to wake up everyday with such guilt, especially after what happened to Seth? Could he refuse all that Mida taught him during his time in Khalos? But it was probably too late… They were coming.

What possibly could he do? Go the easy way and let the stormtroopers do their job, or do something himself? Do what? Improvise. Argo always had a plan for whatever he was doing? For now the plan was to just surrender and explain that he was the man on the inside. That seemed safe, but was it right? He had a simple choice, to do something against his own nature, or against his conscience. The low quality comlink almost broke because of how nervously he was holding it.

...

'They are coming!' Argo yelled while coming down the stairs to the bottom floor of the flat. Everyone was confused.

'The people in white armors?' Kainee asked nervously.

'Yes. We need to run.'

'Have you seen them?'

'Yes… But we have little time. Run!'

Everyone grabbed a couple of essential thing and passed through the doors leading to the basement. Mida being the last closed them right behind her, so they would blend in with unrecognizably with the rest of the flat. The group went down to the basement and then the caverns, which lead to a hole in the cliff. They took precautions and prepared themselves for this moment. All five had to use grappling hooks to get down the cliffs and then escape south.

As they stood on the edge, Vela and Kainee looked down fearlessly, Enetin and Argo seemed uncomfortable, but Mida was genuinely terrified.

'I cannot do this…' she exclaimed. Kainee approached her and boldly said:

'I will help you, but you need to trust me.'

'Ok…' Mida mumbled. Once the words left her mouth, Kainee quickly grabbed her entire body with one hand and jumped off the ledge. At first Mida yelled, but then started breathing heavily while they both were falling. With the proper height, Kainee used the grappling hook built into her gauntlet to slow down. She shoot it into the rocky cliff with perfect timing and ensured a safe landing on the sandy dunes below them. Mida immediately fell on her knees with a relief. 'You see, it is all over now.' Kainee said happily. Mida only chuckled ironically in response.

The girls had to wait a while for the rest to come down, in a much less spectacular way.

'So… They have found us… Somehow…' Enetin sighed sadly.

'What now? Vela asked.

'I don't think it's safe in Khalos anymore. We shouldn't be trying to get back there.' Argo said. This thought was depressing to all kaghatians around him. To them it meant a lot more. They already suffered all the future feeling missing the green gardens and wonderful cobblestone streets of their home.

'The wisest choice would be going to Limani and continuing our cause.' Enetin suggested.

'But how? We already were powerless up there, and now we have lost our home… Most of the equipment… What can we do about them?' Kainee yelled hopelessly.

'Let us just go down south. We will think of something on the way…' Enetin calmed her down. Kainee sat down on the sand and looked at the sky hopelessly. A long silence interrupted the conversation. It took a longer while for everyone to get together and begin their trek.

...

'Charges ready sir…'

'Get ready…' agent Vanto began with a tired voice 'Three, two one!'

The charges went off, making a huge hole where the doorstep was. The stormtroopers stormed in and spread around the entire flat. Agent Vanto slowly followed them inside. The double floored, big room was empty. The residents must have known. There was barely any food left in the kitchen and there were some belongings left. Stormtroopers scavenged every corner and aggressively threw everything around.

Vanto stepped over to some sort of workbench. His troops completely and carelessly wrecked it. Dozens of necklaces, bracelets and other kinds of jewelry lied around, most of high quality and with pricey gems inside. There was a great value on that workbench. It was all worth thousands of credits, but it seemed as if that didn't matter for the person living there. Agent took a couple of more expensive looking items and hid it in his pockets, with an intent to sell it someday in the outer worlds.

Either something has gone wrong, or the more probable option… The contact has betrayed the Empire once more. Vanto was disappointed, disgusted but also confused. Rejecting the prosperous imperial order was an abstract thought to him.

There was no clue to be found inside that building. Vanto ordered his troops to scavenge through the surrounding streets and building, but suspected no success. He couldn't have gone to director Morin empty handed, incapable of catching the insubordinates. There had to be something… anything he could have presented to him with pride. In his mind he struggled to find anything worthy of attention… Ultimately he found himself an idea… A ridiculous one, but definitely worth of taking a risk to survive.

Long after the Twin Stars have disappeared under the horizon, late at night, loud knocking spread around officer Landa's room. The noise woke her up from a comfortable sleep. This time she decided to rest according to her routine, so as to get up early and be ready for her duty, but apparently that was not happen. She got off the bed, approached the doors and opened them even without minding that she was wearing only her underwear. In the doorway stood agent Vanto, with a nervous face and an impatient stance. Surprisingly, not drunk.

'Agent… What are you doing here at this time, sir?' she asked in a sleepy manner. The agent eyed her up and down, which made Landa feel uncomfortable. She reached for her blanket and covered herself with it. It took Vanto a while to gather his thoughts for an answer, being distracted by the picture of the young, half naked officer.

'You need to come with me.' He said quickly.

'With all due respect, but couldn't it wait until morning, agent?'

'I'd rather if no one sees us tonight. I need you to confirm something… Something that should remain a secret for now.'

'So be it. Let me get dressed in my uniform, sir.' Landa said and walked away to her wardrobe while Vanto remained in the doorway.

'We shouldn't waste time. Don't you have anything simpler to put on, officer?'

'No… The uniform is all I have at the moment…'

Once officer Landa was ready, the two silently walked downstairs t]and outside to Vanto's speeder. He drove her to a bottom of a rocky hill, right under the imperial academy of Khalos. It was the place where the tunnels to the unusual excavation began.

Agent lead Landa inside, to the mysterious wall. As he returned here, it was once again blank and seemingly empty. The officer was confused, but patiently awaited an explanation, while agent Vanto turned off all the lights that made the wall visible, leaving only a dim one that led them see each other.

He approached her and took out a bottle with a kaghatian beverage inside.

'Sir… Is this is supposed to be what I think it is?' she asked with discomfort. Vanto handed the bottle in her direction.

'Drink it officer.'

'I really don't want to sir…'

'Just one sip. It is an order.' Vanto said boldly. Landa submitted to his will and took the bottle. The situation and the surrounding darkness made her feel uncomfortable, but this agent had all the power over her, so she tried not to think about it, closed her eyes and drank the beverage. Upon realizing the amazing taste and feeling it gave her, she not only took one sip, but a couple.

Once officer Landa opened her eyes. The hall was no longer dark. With disbelief she looked at the source of light… The ornaments in the wall… And the colorful painting of a beauty standing in the middle, a beauty that against all logic began moving her face and looking at Landa. The girl on the wall was at first surprised, but then looked at Landa with true happiness. So true that she started crying and her actual tears began sliding down the wall.

Vanto took the bottle and drank the beverage as well, to supposedly see what Landa did.

'If you see exactly the same thing as I do… Then those are no hallucinations…' he said to her. Landa wanted to respond, but barely could… She just gasped and whispered:

'She is crying…'

Vanto gasped as well. His theory has been confirmed, what they were seeing must have been real.

'But… Isn't she crying… Out of happiness? Why?' Vanto asked.

'It may sound bizarre… But I believe she is happy to see me…' Landa replied and the girl's crying eyes moved from her to Vanto.

'Her appearance was the sole reason I did not report anything to director Morin yesterday… I feel that you were on to something after all… officer.'

'She… Saved my life.' Landa gasped and upon hearing those words, the girl smiled with even more enthusiasm than before. Having noticed that officer asked 'Can you understand us?'

The girl blinked twice in response, but neither of them noticed, as Vanto yelled loudly drew away Landa's attention:

'Understand? Wait a second officer… We should not overreact. This wall may be able to react to us somehow… But we should not treat it as a sentient being.'

'Agent… We cannot be sure about that. We have no idea what that is or how it works.'

'I didn't come here to try to understand it, but find out whether it is real or not. It is the only good news for the director I have.'

'So that's what it is all about…' Landa exclaimed with disdain, having forgotten for a while about her place in the hierarchy.

'Watch your mouth Landa.' He replied threateningly.

'I am sorry sir…' she apologized with regret, having realized what she just did.

'Still… I ought to thank you officer… For presenting me to this find. I am eager to find out what director Morin will think of that.' Having said that, Vanto began walking away to the exit. Land looked back at the girl on the wall, who stared at her worryingly, as if trying to warn her. Landa was confused about that, but then the girl made it clearer by looking at Vanto.

'Agent!' Landa yelled 'Could you leave that beverage to me… I'd like to inspect its contents.'

Vanto looked at the bottle and then at the officer with a little mistrust.

'Alright… Why not. There is an entire crate of that in the warehouse.' He said and gave the bottle to Landa and left the hall. Landa held the bottle securely and looked at the girl, who smiled to her.

'I think we understand each other…' Landa whispered 'This is crazy…'


	6. Chapter 6 - The Water Trail

**-6-**

 **The Water Trail**

"The truth was always behind your back."

Seth felt laid back around a companion who had no demands of a vocabular contact. At point when he ran out of stories, him and Sotira could comfortably spend time in silence. However that wasn't always the case. Every evening after setting their camp, she sat down and began chanting. Just as usual, there were no words but beautiful sound of her pure voice and that said a lot more than anything else. There were moments when Seth was genuinely afraid of that music, because he felt like he was able to understand it. It felt like craziness to him, but also kept drawing him to the mysteries he unraveled with help of her voice.

In a small floral cave where the two stopped for the night, Seth experienced something unlike anything he ever felt. Sotira chant reached deep into his mind and beyond. He began to sense the world around him. The rocks, moss, flowers, fire and the most remarkable of all… a living being. All of those thing had a certain, abstract structure to them.

He couldn't believe any of that. It was like a bizarre dream, scary not for what it represented, but because of how alien it was to Seth. So alien that he had recall anything that could've comforted him. The sensation of touch. Seth caressed a rocky ceilings above him. His fingers perceived its solid, cold texture it also something more. He was able to literally feel the structure of the rock, its strength, scale of the entire land that surrounded it…

The chanting stopped and the phenomenon started fading away. Seth looked at Sotira with confusement. She was staring at him with curiosity and a certain surprise on her face.

'What is this?' He asked demandingly. Sotira approached him, took his hand and put it back to the wall. Through her intimate grip, he could once again feel, not only the sensation of touch, but also all different aspects the rock.

'Einai Kyllogynai.' She whispered to him.

'One says it is love, other says it is some sort of a force… Now you are trying to tell me it is a structure of that rock?' He asked without understanding. Sotira suddenly took his other hand and held both of them intimately.

'Gipha…' she whispered again.

'The origin…' Seth mumbled without understanding, for a while unaware of the fact that he has just said. 'Wait a second… What's going on? Why did I understand that name in such a way?'

'Einai safineia.' Once again upon hearing her words, a sentence suddenly appeared in Seth's mind, as possibly… the explanation.

'It is the meaning…' He said. Sotira nodded her head, somehow knowing he understood her. 'So… Gipha means "the origin"... But what is that supposed to mean? What does that have to do with Kyllogynai…' He stopped suddenly because of something strange he has felt. Almost as if the ground began shaking, but didn't. He felt the vibrations in his mind, only that they didn't appear in the reality until a few seconds later. He felt that before it happened.

Sotira dropped his hands and peeked out from the cave. So did he. Behind the tree line, an imperial walker roamed the dunes. Each step terrifyingly shook the ground.

The two went back inside. Sotira extinguished the fireplace which could have drawn attention and they were left in darkness. Seth could not find his bedroll, so he roamed the cave with confusion.

'I can't see anything…' He said, but suddenly Sotira once again grabbed his hand. When she did, he knew well where every single thing around him was. He didn't see or feel it… He just knew.

Seth sat down comfortably on his bedroll. Sotira moved hers closer to him, while still holding the hand. At first he was confused and felt a certain romantic tension inside of him, but that was not it.

'Kido.' She whispered. It echoed through Seth's mind, more and more chaotically, until he heard a one, clear word deep inside of him… "cold".

It was cold indeed. The nights before, with no worries, they could have slept outside, where it was warm. Now that they were getting closer to next Imperial settlements, it was obvious that the camps had to be more secretive. The cave hidden in the bushes was a perfect choice, however it was quite cold to sleep inside. Fortunately Sotira carried a big blanket in her backpack, which she took out and laid over both of them.

'Maze… hermo.' She said. "Together… warm" as Seth understood it.

He 'Alright...' He said uncomfortably, while Sotira cuddled into him. It was once again, an unusual for him, experience of kaghatian intimacy between strangers. However, soon warmth outweighed the discomfort. It was better this way, and refusing her would only be foolish.

'How do you make understand… all of those things?' Seth asked after a while.

'Thelio kathalii… Kai kathalii.' She replied. "I want you to understand… And you understand".

'I… don't understand.' Seth exclaimed. Sotira only chuckled and remained silent.

Next day, the two reached a small village of farmers, located on a river bank. Though not completely absent, there were a few imperials roaming around the streets and an imperial outpost in an taken over kaghatian building. Local kaghatians immediately offered them food and hideout from the imperials.

Just as before, in Farangha, all gathered one night to witness the priestess of Khal Kaghatia. Same thing happened later on, in every single city or village they encountered on their way north. With each time, Seth felt more comfortable around those people and began talking more.

That was until the two travelers reached a huge dam on the river, built into a steep rock. The whole area had been taken over by the Empire and the beautiful kaghatian structure had been turned into a military facility. Right under the dam was a landing platform, full of imperial fighters and other combat vehicles.

Seth and Sotira had to circle such a dangerous area and they run away to a steep hill that led up to a high plateau. On top, a completely different sight appeared before them. Behind the vast bushes, lied a sea, and an opposite coast barely visible in the distant horizon. Considering the fact that Tattoine was allegedly a desert planet, it was huge. The flora along the coastline changed as well, into a harsher, but even more beautiful environment.

Seth and Sotira sat down on a rock by the water and rested for a while, admiring the wonderful landscape. The wind in that place was a bit colder and refreshing. Seth took off his shoes and cooled his tired feet in the water. So did Sotira, only that she wasn't wearing any shoes. She trekked this land for days, barefooted and it appeared that she was completely comfortable with that.

Seth has lost the track of time. It seemed as if he suddenly snapped and realized they have been there for a long time.

'We should go.' He said and looked at Sotira. She looked at him with a serious expression and kept staring at him, until suddenly, out of nowhere, water splashed right into Seth's face. Sotira burst into laughter while he looked around with confusement. She calmly waved her hand and the water magically splashed on Seth once again. Her laugh was somewhat childish and she kept on chuckling even though he did not find it so funny.

'Alright… That's a good one…' Seth said boringly. Sotira jumped down to the shallow water and encouraged him to play by throwing the water at him all the time. 'If you insist…'

As two started playing in the water like children that have seen the sea for the first time in their lives. Seth enjoyed such an irrelevant interruption of their journey more than he expected. Each time he splashed some water on Sotira, she did something unusual to it with her abilities. The laws of physics stopped making sense. It looked almost as if there was an invisible extension of Sotira's body. The water moved away from her, flown around her, climbed up her legs and she was in control of it.

For a moment Seth stood still and stopped doing anything. There was something ambiguous about her connection to the water. A thought came across his mind… That Sotira was not standing on the plane of the world, but was part of it, in one as perfect harmony, while still remaining an independent being. Wondrous…

…

The main building of the imperial offices was spacious enough for director Morin to reorganize every single room in his own way, according to his hobbies. Agent Vanto went around the entire place to look for him, from the private armory to the recreational center, but ultimately found him in a big hall. Inside, four men were working on a huge model of Khalos. Their skin was pale, indicating that they weren't kaghatians. Probably some artists from Coruscant, hired for such a job. Morin circled them and supervised the entire construction.

'Admiral…' Vanto interrupted. The model makers looked at him for a brief moment and then turned back to their jobs, while Morin encouraged the agent to approach him:

'Agent Vanto, I finally see you here…'

'I am sorry, director. The last few days were busy…'

'Back when I was little kid on Coruscant…' Morin began, completely ignoring what Vanto had to say. 'I loved to play with action figures that my parents bought me from off world traders. I even had an entire collection of Jedi, would you believe that?' he chuckled and opened a shelf, full of old toys and action figures. Morin took a couple of them and began placing them all over the model of Khalos. 'With these toys… I had an opportunity to create new worlds and characters, then direct their fate the way I desired. It was my reality and I was its god.'

'That's… Very interesting, sir.' Vanto knew what to say. He was beginning to get used to Morin's ramblings, which he understood only when they were precisely explained to him. Seeing his confusement, director smiled and continued:

'Yes! Very interesting, for since the beginning I wanted to go bigger. I asked my parents to organize more spacious room to play at, bigger figures… And well, look at me now… The fate lets me make my dreams more real than they ever were… An entire land with wonderful cities… My new great model…'

Vanto was genuinely surprised, for it was the first time he ever saw director Morin get emotional. Suddenly he felt like he was more real and humane than any other of his superiors. Agent completely ignored the fact that he has just heard typical despot words and rather saw the opportunity to share some of that power, to become director's favorite toy.

'It would almost be perfect…' Morin continued 'If not for those new action figures that don't seem to work as they should…'

'I see…' Vanto exclaimed.

'Agent…' Morin said and gave the agent an old figure of a clone trooper. 'We must undertake certain steps to make sure things run smoothly around here. We've been too kind for the anarchists who live here, it is time that we prepared our iron fist and hit them right in the guts for starters… Compulsory military service.'

'Crude… As crude as it should be of course, director.' Vanto said with a certain amount of pleasure in his voice. He already knew he is going to be the main asset in bring control over the kaghatians, finally something he could have been proud of, for the first time in many years since he has been degraded to that place.

'You shall initiate the new program, agent.'

'Thank you, director.' He said with pride. His position in the military hierarchy of this land was already safe, but he felt like it wasn't enough,he wanted to impress the director already at that moment. 'But sir, if I may take your time… I have discovered something worthy of your attention in officer Landa's excavation.

'So the digging finally paid off!' Morin laughed 'Let me see it then.'

Before going away to the excavation, agent, director and their escort stopped by the imperial warehouse to acquire another bottle of the peculiar beverage. Vanto unlocked the doors with his special cylinder and went looking for the right crate. Shockingly, it was nowhere to be found. Vanto turned to warehouse supervisor to find an explanation.

'The crates you are looking for, sir ,were indeed transported here two days ago, but there is no record of anyone accessing the warehouse this day… They just… disappeared.' Overseer mumbled in fear.

'They didn't disappear, they were stolen, you moron.' Morin suddenly stepped into the conversation. And then turned to his escort. 'Take him to the others on the arena.'

'Oh no, no, no no! Please director, I am sorry for my failure!' the man yelled while stormtroopers carried him away.

'Supervisor, sure…' Morin said with irony. 'Nevertheless… This situation is getting more and more interesting. Who in their righteous mind would break into imperial offices to steal a crate of beverages… I am so excited to know what they really are. You've got a good nose for this kind of thing, agent.'

'Thank you, director.'

…

Excavation under the kaghatian palace of arts has been temporarily closed due to to flooding danger. At least that's the reason officer Landa gave so that she could turn that hall into her secret headquarters for the time being. That's where she took the crates of peculiar kaghatian liquor to examine it, which she did in the night hours in company of the mysterious lady on the wall.

'This is crazy… I mean, can you even imagine what would happen to me if anyone found out.' Landa said while working over her desk. There was no answer, obviously. She looked up on the wall and noticed that the girl only raised her eyebrows. 'Yeah, right… Listen, I would have some questions for you, so let's do it this way… Two blinks for "yes", eyes closed for "no", ok?'

The girl blinked twice in response.

'Good… That should make things easier. First of all, is it something about that beverage, that I can see you?'

Two blinks.

'I thought so. Huh… This is so crazy… How is that even possible?'

Nothing.

'Nevermind. I'd rather know more about you… Are you that famous Khal Kaghatia?'

Two blinks. Landa gasped mildly and looked at the wall with confusement.

'But, you are some sort of advanced projection of her, aren't you?'

Eyes closed. Landa was even more confused.

'So… You are real Khal Kaghatia… And are you, there literally? In that wall I mean…'

Two blinks. Eyes closed.

'Yes and no? I don't understand…'

The girl rolled her eyes around.

'Are you… everywhere?'

Two blinks. Landa took a big breath and said quietly:

'I see… Well, it will take some time to convince me… That you really the one who established this entire society such a long time ago… How did I even end up here? I should be out there on a big destroyer, serving for some important personality like Tarkin or Thrawn.' Landa said angrily and sat in silence. After a while she realized that her computer finished running scans on the liquid.

'This beverage… There is something inside of it… A special ingredient, in small dosage, right?'

Two blinks.

'Would I be able to extract it?'

The girl blinked twice, multiple times.

'You want me to do it?'

Two blinks.

'Somehow… I trust you, even though you are a moving painting in a glowing wall. So be it.'

The girl smiled to Landa, who responded in kind.

…

Path along the coastal beaches lead towards a cosy cobblestone homestead with a little farm, pier and a boat on the water. It must have been the place where Groucho told them to go.

There was a woman taking care of a garden by the doorway and a man fixing the boat. The quickly noticed the two approaching, but seeing Sotira, they didn't have to ask any questions. They welcomed both of them with a wide smile.

The two hosts were a couple, Lidia and Brianon. They had a little daughter, Andelousia. They lived their lives peacefully, far away from any civilization in that self-sufficient homestead. It seemed to Seth that he somehow knew them, but he couldn't possibly remember why or how.

As they arrived in time when the Twin Stars were already setting, it was time for supper, which the couple kindly to prepare for two more people.

The dishes in the bowls on the table consisted only of natural floral ingredients. There was no trace of synthetic meat or anything "manufactured". Seth didn't really mind it, even though he hoped for something more meaty.

'We hope it is enough for you, it is all straight from our garden… We do not get any supplies from Factoria or other cities… We are sort of, isolated.' said Lidia.

'It's alright.' Seth replied with kindness that he forced upon himself 'So… Does Empire know of this place?'

'No. They know nothing.' Brianon said 'Let us be honest, it is a small hut hidden in the tree line of a long coast. A modest life in a modest place that gives us peace in return.'

'Though, it was not always like that…' Lidia began with a shy expression. Brianon looked at her worryingly with an angle of his eye. 'We used to live in Khalos while I was still carrying Andelousia… We had a son… And another daughter. They went off to see the stars and kept returning with amazing tales and some newcomers that they have helped along the way… But at some point they stopped… Disappeared. We wanted to go looking for them, but we could not have endangered our newborn daughter. Priests and priestesses made it helped us to get over it, and settle this little homestead to cut away from the pain we would have to live through…'

'But we do not believe they are gone. They may still come back, there is an info in their old apartment about where we are. When they come back, they will find us.'

Internally, Seth emotions were in state of a supernova. He tried to suppress them as hard as he could, which ended in an uncomfortable silence. Lidia's eyes slowly got teary, until she attempted to to make a smile and said:

'But it is unwise to dwell on that, while we cannot do anything… You two better tell us how it is you got here.'

'We did not even catch your names.' Andelousia calmly said and looked at Sotira 'Leana?'

'Ah… Sotirae Metaurenia.' she replied, while Seth looked at their hosts with uncertainty.

'My name is... Luke…' he said nervously. Sotira looked at him worryingly, but without any confusion. She seemed to know very well that Seth had a reason to give a different name. He stood up. 'I am sorry, do you mind if I go out for while?'

'Is there something wrong?' Lidia asked.

'No, not at all, it's just that… I need some fresh air, that's all… I will be back in a while.'

Having said that Seth left the homestead and walked away from it to a beach where he could spend some time alone. He angrily threw a rock far into the sea, sat down and started sobbing.

…

Sotira excused the kind family after leaving the table and crossed the wooden doorway, while carefully pressing handle. She was suddenly hit with a wave of refreshing night air, the breath of the land blowing into her big coily hair. The texture of soil and sand under her bare feet gave a comforting feeling of unity with the world. Waves of the sea hitting the shore were like a heartbeat of the universe, calm, beating simultaneously with her heart. Above her was a wide, clean sky of stars and galaxies, all somehow connected, affecting each other, full of life which shined in Sotira's brown eyes. The move of each branch of the forest, whistling of the wind, chittering of the wildlife, cracking fireplace inside the family's house, even the distant city across the sea… She felt it all in a harmonic balance of Kyllogynai, except for one thing…

Among many voices chanting to her there were some that stood out, not for a good reason. It was despair and pain. Some were more quiet, some were louder, more distant, closer… But there was one greater than any other, sad unlike anything Sotira has ever experienced. She followed that miserable chant to its source along the beach.

Seth was lying on the sand in front of the sea. Through his cry she heard his entire story, she lived through it and felt the same pain as he did. It was not only hard for him, but also hard for her to see other people suffering like this. Sotira didn't want him to be alone. She lied down and hugged him with all the love that she felt for the light of his life, the light of life which did not deserve such pain.

Sotira wanted to soothe him, she wanted to say something, but knew well he would not understand. Before saying it, deep within herself she grasped the meaning of those words and through her will for Seth to understand them, that very meaning became one with his thoughts.

'Den eisai monos.'

'But I was alone… Ever since she was gone… It is such a terrifying thought… They think they are going to come back… But their son… And their daughter are not going to come back… I have seen them die… And that was my fault…'

While Sotira managed to feel the meaning of each word he said, there was only one that confused her… "die". Even though she understood its weight and what it meant, she genuinely had no idea how to apply it to the reality. But she knew well it was not the time to dig into that, what mattered was that their children indeed would not come back and that Seth blamed himself. Either way, they would all meet each other in Gipha.

'I could have saved them… But I was a coward… I ran away… A fool… A traitor… If I gave them my real name they would have recognized me… I wouldn't stand them looking at me if they did.' he spoke through his cry.

Words were not enough to stop Seth from torturing himself with the past. Sotira helped him get up. Both sat down in front of each other. He opened his teary eyes and looked upon Sotira.

'I am worthless…' he said, but she only stared at him, until he felt it. Through her eyes, Seth and Sotira connected, their minds united, two souls became one. Her thoughts became his… "We are not what we once were. If you are going to keep running away from your past over and over again, it will not stop torturing you. Face it and prove that you have changed in the light of Kyllogynai… That you are not what you once was… That you are free of the mistakes of your past."

Sotira felt that Seth understood her, but he was still collapsing inwards in shame. Only time and the future events could change it. For now she could have only taken his mind of it. Sotira sat closer to him and reached for her satchel. She took out two small cups and filled them with a bit of water from one of the bottles attached to her belt, one that she hasn't opened before.

'Aftho tha sas kanei na noisitie kalietiera.' she said and handed Seth a cup.

'What is this?' he asked and looked at the water inside with suspicion. He appeared to be confused about the way Sotira was treating such a simple drink. To encourage him she drank it all from her cup with one sip. To Sotira it made no bigger difference, except for refreshment, but to him it would have been his first step into a larger world.

…

She took the sip, so it couldn't have ended badly. It was just water to him. And so the content of the cup went down his throat, which was indeed a very refreshing experience, one that made him feel a little better in an empowering way... But he did not expect what came afterwards…

At first it was complete shock and fear of the unknown. The sight that Seth was used to was gone. The world around him which once felt so natural, though seemingly the same, suddenly became completely alien to him. In the first seconds he did not understand anything, the world seemed blindening and confusing, completely abstract. After a while he noticed that he could hear and feel much more. The sounds of Sotira's heartbeat, family's supper and the most distant waves on the sea were against all logic… clear and loud.

Only with time Seth began to see what was truly before his eyes, so familiar and yet so different. There are no words to describe it, the sight that reached beyond the matter of the universe into its essence.

Seth looked at Sotira and saw the unforgettable… It was life itself. Bright and beautiful beyond comprehension, but not composed of light only. It was an abstract mixture of what he has always seen, bright energy and countless other things such as her emotions and strengths. Upon realizing it, he fell in pure love with the entirety of world around him. It was something he has not seen before, hidden under the layer of beliefs about the reality hat he was taught from the youngest age. That amount of love brought him to tears, tears of happiness. Never in his life was there a moment when he had such an emotional reaction to anything.

For a longer time, Seth heard buzzing of a fly coming towards him, until it finally sat on his fingers. The light of its life was just as bright as Sotira's, just as beautiful and amazing. Seth always took it for granted that beings such as a fly and him are alive, but not even once put a thought to how much of beautiful miracle that was. That raised a question in his mind:

'Why would anyone dare to hurt such a wonderful being? Distinguish that light?'

As the fly flew away, Seth noticed a distant city across the sea. He could both feel and see that agglomeration of life and then realized that it wasn't just one place. The life was all around them. Behind the bushes, on the trees, in the air, spread across the different stars on the sky, penetrating their bodies and filling all the space. It was an infinite energy field, the primal construct of the universe. He saw it as if he was looking in a direction that was abstract to him before, a fourth dimension, deep within the three dimensional space he was used to. Seth loved it with the entirety of his heart as he laid in Sotira's arms. She began to chant just the way she did back in the cave. The universe echoed her, creating a choir of the most beautiful music he has ever heard…

…

By following the instructions Landa found in her computer, she gathered the equipment needed and extracted the mysterious substance from the kaghatian beverage. It took ten bottles to make a one small cup. The resulting liquid looked like a normal water and had similar properties. It was a confusing disappointment to her.

'Is that it?' she asked. The girl blinked twice and widened her eyes. Landa took a sniff of the water. Still, there was nothing unusual. 'Should I… drink that?' The girl applauded with her eyes. Landa was not too sure about that. She believed it was nothing but a normal water, however there were also some doubts. She accepted the small possibility that something abnormal would happen if she drank it. However it already was abnormal, the moving painting told her to do that, but still… She examined who Khal Kaghatia was, and if indeed that was the kaghatian lady blinking her eyes at her, then there was no one more trustworthy around…

Landa's thoughts were getting more an more complicated and they all concerned such a simple thing, taking a sip. She decided to do it, no matter the possible consequences and nodded her head to the girl.

With one quick move Landa a drank the cup of water. It was even more refreshing than the original beverage and hit her stronger than before. For a while she forgot when she was and everything started to fade into darkness, until the ornaments on the wall bursted with a much brighter light than before. Then, she saw it. Everything. The girl on the wall now moved not only her face, but the entire body, as well as spoke, with a voice that Landa heard deep within herself:

'Now you see…' it was a calm, soothing whisper which somehow tingled Landa's feelings.

As the weight of the entire truth came down crushing on her, she laid her head on the desk and started crying, mourning over what she is, what she has done and lever her entire life. But she did not feel lonely. Khal Kaghatia watched over her.


	7. Chapter 7 - Kaghatian Sails

**-7-**

 **Kaghatian Sails**

 ****"My friends, it matters not what you believe in and whether it is real or not. What truly matters is where this belief going to lead you..."

Hammock between two coastal trees swinged calmly on the morning breeze. The sky was bright, but the suns have not risen above the horizon yet.

Seth felt dizzy and confused. He felt as if there was something missing inside of him. He raised his head and looked around. He was on a beach, right next to a pier and a small cobblestone house. Seth recalled that the previous day they came here and met the local family, but further memories were unclear.

He looked the other way and noticed Andelousia playing in the shallow water. The moment they made an eye contact, she smiled to him and began walking in direction of a stone table where stood a bunch of cups. Now that Seth had a chance to take a closer look at that girl, he realized how alike she was to Amelia. At first he was confused, but then remembered the she is her sister. Then, only sadness remained.

Andelousia took one of the cups, filled it with sea water and then after approaching Seth, gave it to him.

'Do not worry. It is good to drink.' she said.

'Thank you…' he replied with a harsh, lazy voice. After taking a sip, he felt a little better and his thoughts became more clear.

'Sotira told me you may not remember all the things you have seen last night.' Andelousia carried on with her high pitched voice of a child.

'Why?'

'Because it was shock to you.'

'What happened?'

'There are no words in your language that could describe it. Let us just say that Sotira has shown you the Kyllogynai.'

Seth tried to recall what happened last night on the beach. His memories reached only to the moment when he flipped the cup. Once he tried to reach further, his head began to hurt. It was as if he remembered it all, but couldn't recall it. He tried again and groaned in pain.

'Do not force it upon yourself.' said Andelousia 'It will take you some time to understand.'

Despite her age, she sounded much more intelligent than she looked. Seth didn't understand what she meant, but being ashamed around her, pretended to do and nodded his head.

After another hour of rest, he was approached by her father.

'It is time.' Brainon said with a calm voice. Seth lazily got off the hammock and joined Sotira who already was waiting on the boat. It was a small vessel with a miniature lower deck and an upper deck capable fitting up to six people.

Before sailing out, Brainon said his goodbyes to his wife and daughter.

'Please, be careful. You know what kinds of things are happening out there…'

'Do not worry. It is just a short course to Limani. You two will even be able to observe us through macrobinoculars…' Brainon staggered and began whispering. Seth was still able to hear him. 'I have to do it… Sotira… You have seen what she did last night… It is the renaissance. It is Khal's will. They need to reach Khalos.'

'I just… Hope nothing bad will happen like it did before…'

'Lidia…' Brainon calmed her down 'It is the second step and each one was ought to be progressively better. There will not be as many casualties.'

'But there will be some…'

'Lidia… Please… It is just a couple of hours.'

'Yes… I am sorry. You should just be on your way. The faster you go, the faster you return.'

Brianon smiled, kissed Lidia in the mouth and then kissed his daughter in the forehead. He was ready to sail off.

…

It was the arena time. The infamous event organized to preserve the morale of director Morin's servants. It took place right behind the imperial offices. Most of the imperial authorities were forced to spectate. Few comed willingly, but most did not. Agent Vanto was in the middle. Those weren't stormtroopers that forced him to come, but himself. He told himself that it is best to follow Morin's orders, for his and Khalos' sake.

'Clive!' he heard a harsh but still friendly voice. It was the director himself calling him to his private lounge in the audience. It was bizarre to say the least, Morin using Vanto's first name. The agent took it the friendly way and hoped that it was the right choice while sitting down next to him.

'Greetings to you director… It is, quite a surprise to hear you use my first name.'

'Ah, yes. I believe that on a day like this it is adequate to introduce a friendly atmosphere among those that stay loyal to our idea… And I read your file. You've got a lot going there. Hunting the Jedi with Lord Vader and the peculiar character of agent Drenn… He is governor now I think, but it definitely looks good in your portfolio. This man became a myth among our ranks.'

'He did not belong to the most sociable, but there was something inside of him… This kind of power and faultless instinct.'

'We could use this kind of help in here. Speaking off… How are the preparations going?'

'We have informed the families of the compulsory military service. Should they refuse or misunderstood, tomorrow morning we will take their children by force.' Vanto said with a proud smile.

'Very good… And the thief situation?'

'I have my suspects…' agent replied while peeking at different Imperials trying to make themselves comfortable in the audience. One stood out. Officer Landa on the opposite side of the round arena. She looked out of touch and afraid. There has been a change in her behavior.

But Clive began to feel uncomfortable as well. Something was wrong, someone observed him. He nervously looked around in search of any eye contact. And there it was. A figure stared at him from behind the crowd. It was a woman. Her face seemed familiar, but it was pale. She wore an imperial uniform, but it was different, much longer, almost like a robe and grey unlike others which are usually olive or grey. Vanto looked at the director and asked him:

'Sir, do you know who that is?'

'Who?'

Vanto wanted to look again at the woman, but she was gone, as if she has never been there. It was a bizarre… Vanto decided to ignore it.

'Nevermind sir… She is gone…'

The spectacle began. Three victims were thrown into the middle of the arena. Among them was the warehouse supervisor that has been apprehended recently. Each one of them was given a weapon. Usually a baton or a weak blaster, none powerful enough for an effective defense. In fear the looked around and waited for the beasts to come out.

They were huge, fox alike creatures with a thick beige fur, two of them. Their sharp claws and teeth were uncovered as they began to circle the poor victims who prepared to defend themselves. The man with a baton did not wait around and took a swing at the beast, which dodged the attack and rushed at him violently, plunging its teeth into his body. First drops of blood began to stain the sand.

The gruesome part began, the one where the differences in the audience became more apparent, between those who enjoy the view and those who try to look away. Officer Landa was one of them, almost panicking on that sight.

She stood up and wanted to leave, but the stormtrooper stopped at the exit. She went back to her seat and attempted to make it through by closing her eyes.

The beasts slowly took down each victim, while the audience developed a fear, that someday it may be them standing in the middle, if they fail their director.

…

The boat was an archaic mean of travel. This did not even have an engine and gained speed with a manually set sail. It was wobbly on the water, but thanks to that felt somewhat more natural.

'Sailing is an almost forgotten art.' Brainon said while operating the rudder. Sotira observed his every move while he was operating the boat.

Seth felt uncomfortable with the big hole in the memories he could recall. All sorts of things could have happened, including him telling the truth about his past to everyone. He was afraid to talk about it, to find out what really happened. Seth leaned on the edge of the boat and looked out to the sea. Brainon looked at him with confusement and turned to Sotira afterwards.

'Einai enteixie?' He asked.

'Einai entholios gifthon, sirisa aletheia, Kyllogynai.' Sotira replied and nodded in Seth's direction.

In fear that they could have been talking about the previous day's event, Seth decided to change whatever was their topic, to something that baffled him.

'What's the renaissance?' He asked. At first Brainon's look was unsure, but after a while put his thoughts together and replied with a question:

'You want to hear the short, or the long version?'

Seth sighed and waved at the sea.

'Well, it's a long way…'

Brainon chuckled and began his story:

'It is in our ways to make a great celebration with priests and priestesses upon the birth of a new life. When Amelia was born, we were invited to their sanctuary in the ancient caves, the one where you met Sotira. After the traditional chants, priest told us one of their legends, or rather prophecies.

Thousands of years ago, back when those who have seen Khal Kaghatia with their own eyes were alive, the first priests and priestesses stepped outside of time together and saw the entire history of our galaxy. When they looked upon the past and the future of kaghatians, they recognized three historical steps, each leading further into the light.

The first one was the great raid on Khalos and the sacrifice of Khal Kaghatia which isolated us to ensure our safety. The second is said to be the renaissance, the time when history repeats itself. It was never specified what that ultimately meant, but it is safe to assume that this is what is happening now. The ignorant invaders are back, and Khal Kaghatia shall return to save us once again…'

Judging by that story and the conversation Brainon had with Lidia, it was apparent that he deeply believed it was the true. Seth tried to hide his grin, so as not to offend him.

'So… What's the third step?'

'The third step is the summit of history itself. According to the original texts, it will not happen for many years, or even eras. It is the most distant future where the son of the first outlander priestesses would join the daughter of Khal herself in a journey that would lead them out from Gipha to the galaxy ruined by war. United with the Kyllogynai, they would wield a power to help those who survived and rebuild it according to Kyria's ways. The third step is the end, and a new beginning when everyone becomes a kaghatian.'

'When everyone becomes a kaghatian?' Seth asked with a confused grin, one that he was unable to hide anymore, but Brainon laughed.

'To be a kaghatian is not to have a brown skin and wild curly hair. It is to love and understand the universe with beauty and kindness.' Brainon said and chuckled 'There are more than many misconceptions about us, words that mean something different out there in the stars.'

'And I am here in the middle… Thinking I understand you all, but in fact trying to… I am aware that for thousands of years you have lived here in peace and prosperity, in an utopia…'

'Utopia?' Brainon asked with confusement. Seth chuckled.

'Of course… It's another one of those… I guess that you never developed a need for such a word. Utopia is a perfect place, a place where life is good. For us up there, it is a dream beyond our reach and for you… For you that perfect place was home. People around the galaxy do not believe that such an utopia is possible, they are led to believe that life is painful and that evil is rooted deep within ourselves, but…'

'But it is that very belief which makes it impossible. I know. We were not cut away. We approximately knew what was going there. This knowledge was always a warning of what happens when one does not follow the Kyllogynai.'

'Here it's so much easier. There this pessimistic mentality is like a cursed paradox, though in different shapes and forms, it is taught from one generation to another. Sometimes just as an illusion good, and sometimes just literal. And all of that goes to some sick and violent beginning of that civilization. However your history started, it must have been pure, without a trace of hatred and violence.'

'Khal Kaghatia took all of that upon herself.' Brainon said. Seth looked away, unwillingly indicating his disbelief.

'You are not entirely convinced by her, are you?'

'I don't know anymore… I feel that I may have been infected by the outside, by that ignorance… I don't know…' Seth said with sadness, but was suddenly interrupted by an ambient sound he heard. It was a slowly raising hum. 'Can you hear that?'

'No… What is it?' Brainon asked.

'Micainasios!' Sotira yelled and pointed south, where they came from. Far away three imperial star fighters were flying in a triangular formation. They circled the land neighboring to the sea, until taking a course for north, in direction of the boat. It took a while for the three to hear not really hum, but this time a powerful roar of their engines. It must have been just training, Seth has seen it dozens of times before on other planets.

'Now, that is big power for a vehicle of this size, is it not...' Brainon said and chuckled. Seth smiled, however none of that cheered Sotira up. In contrary, she alarming stood up and attempted to reach Brainon.

'Proseite!' she yelled, but didn't make it in time. The imperial star fighters drastically lowered their altitude, what disrupted the calm water. As they passed the boat in a flash, a strong blow of air struck the sail and almost flipped the entire vessel upside down. Seth managed to fall right in the middle together with Sotira, but Brainon hit his head on the edge of the boat and fell off.

Because of their speed, he was quickly left behind.

Without hesitation Sotira stood up and took down the sail by untying it from the mast. Once the boat started slowing down, she jumped off, but to Seth amazement she did not sunk into it. As if it was nothing, Sotira landed on the surface of the water like it was a solid ground and started running towards slowly sinking, unconscious Brainon. Upon reaching him, she grabbed his body and carried it, even though he was twice her size.

Sotira brought him back to the boat without any problem and laid him down in the middle. Seth was just sitting on a bench, speechless, with a hateful feeling of being any more helpful than she was. Sotira inspected Brainon's head and between the hair found blood. She carefully caught the remaining drops of water on his face with her finger, kissed it and then put to his wound.

Seth just remained in an uncomfortable silence while Sotira began whispering and chanting worryingly with both hands on Brainon's head. After a few minutes she stopped and reached for a rag under the bench to wipe off the blood. Now underneath it there was nothing more than a small scar. Upon that sight Sotira leaned back and sighed with relief.

'Wow…' Seth exclaimed in disbelief. Sotira chuckled lazily. 'Is he going to be alright? he asked nervously.

Sotira approached him and caressed his arm soothingly.

'Ilemi, Seth.' she said. He understood that she wanted to calm him down.

'Ok… But what… now…' Seth wanted to ask, but immediately received an answer. Sotira took the sail and tied it back to the mast, then prepared it for travel and grabbed the rudder. The ship was once again speeding through the calm waves. 'So… Since when can you sail?'

…

To say the least, that was a bad day. Officer Landa woke up in the excavation site instead of her apartments with a headache and a big hole in her memory. Not just that, but she was also forced to spectate a bloody slaughter. Being so tired with everything, she headed for her apartment to rest.

Landa felt different than usual, even the arena was harder for her than before. She started feeling that something was wrong. The city seemed too gloomy and empty. Seemingly out of nowhere, she felt that those streets were supposed to be lively and full of life, as if she remembered it this way. Landa was genuinely worried about the her compassion towards the anarchist kaghatians.

Sight of her doors was always a soothing tease of the only time Landa had for herself, the only moment when she could spend some time alone and sort things out in her head. She sighed with relief, inserted her cylinder to the panel next to the doors and once they opened, entered her apartment.

Landa instinctly went for her bed, but through her half closed eyes saw something out of the ordinary. In shock, she fell on the chair behind her. A pair of kaghatians was sitting comfortably on her bed. Both of them had peculiar brown tattoos. It was a priest and a priestess.

'You are finally back.' the man said.

'How did you get here?' Landa asked with fear.

'What do you mean?'

'Delatheias. She does not remember.' the priestess said to her partner and then turned back to officer Landa. 'Lionela, just calm down…'

'How do you know my name?'

'You told us yesterday, when you freed us.'

'No… This doesn't make any sense.

'It will be hard at first…'

'I am so done.' Lionela said with fear. If she indeed broke them out from an imperial prison, then sooner or later someone would find discovered a trail leading straight to her. 'How could I have been so stupid? Do you two know what the consequences would be if the others discovered that.'

'You are not stupid, but brave and you are not an ignorant like the rest, you can sense it, do you not?' the priest said.

'Sense what?' Landa asked and attempted to recall what happened the previous night. She slowly went over every detail, one after another. She extracted the substance from the beverage, drank it… What happened next confused her, to the point of another strong headache. Lionela groaned in pain.

'She needs water.' the priestess said and grabbed a glass that was standing on a shelf next to the bed.

'Is it imported?' the priest asked. His partner tasted and nodded. She went to the refresher, emptied the glass and filled it with tap water.

'It will help you.' The priestess said while handing Lionela the glass. She took it without gratitude and took a big sip. The water indeed diminished the pain. Now that her mind was clear, she looked around the room once again, then at the glass.

'I need answers. Don't you dare leave this place while I am gone.' Lionela said and approached the doors.

'We promise.' the priestess said.

Landa quickly returned to the excavation. Without any workers inside, the place was dark, so she reached for a flashlight lying on her desk and then approached a small hole in the rocky wall where she hid the box with the beverages. She opened it. Almost all of the bottles were empty except for one, as if left for an emergency situation. Without putting much thought to it, she opened it, took a sip and approached the wall. As expected, the girl and the bright ornaments appeared in front of her shortly after.

'What happened to me yesterday?' She asked with a grudge. The girl only kept rolling her eyes to the left. 'Now don't try to look away…' the girl kept on rolling her eyes even more nervously. 'What?' she asked with frustration and finally looked to the left. A figure was standing in the darkness. Lionela backed off in fear. A sound of contemptuous laugh filled the cave.

'That was to be expected. I warned you officer, you were ought to treat that as a trophy, not delve deeper into trouble.' Agent Vanto said while stepping out from the shadow.

'No… Sir, you misunderstand…'

'You don't need to do that. Do not struggle with explanations. It is obvious. You stole the beverages and liberated two heretics. I presume they are at your apartment right now. Do not worry, we will make a stop there.' He said with disdain.

At this point Lionela understood it was over, her career and in a few days her life. All of her hopes for the future now became a fantasy. All the years of education in the imperial academy turned out to be a waste. All that would happen next was about to lead her to nothingness. There was no justification, no way to escape from Morin's punishment. She could not trust the Empire… The Empire was ignorant to her.

'So… It's over…' Landa said and looked at the last remaining bottle of the kaghatian beverage that she held in her hand. With all the hatred she now began to feel towards Vanto and all who blindly follow Morin's orders, she smashed it against the wall, so that the director would never see this the secrets of the wall. Vanto made a nervous move as if he wanted to stop her, but it was too late. His hand began to shake upon the pressure of buzzing anger.

'That wasn't smart missy…' he said and within an ordering move of his other hand, a group of stormtroopers walked out from the shadows behind him to apprehend Landa. She did not resist. Agent walked up to the stolen crate and looked at the empty bottles inside with confusement.

'No… This can't be…' He groaned and then aggressively walked up to Lionela, held by two stormtroopers. 'What happened to the rest?' Landa made an ironic smile and said:

'Oh I got absolutely drunk yesterday… I don't remember.'

Vanto chuckled trying to suppress his fury, but failed at doing so and punched Landa in the face as hard as he could. After cooling down, he ripped away her insignia plaque, took away her identity cylinders and said:

'Get her to the arena prison.'

The two stormtroopers carried out a barely conscious ex officer, while the rest gathered around the agent.

'Orders, sir?' one of them asked.

'Examine the area…'

'What are we looking for sir?'

'Anything!' Vanto yelled in fury and walked away.

…

Seth's hand slowly touched the water which quickly passed underneath the boat. In the middle of the sea the water was much colder than at the coast. It was truly relieving in the heat of two suns.

Brainon groaned, he began to wake up. He rolled on his side and looked up at Sotira operating the boat.

'Alright…' He said with confusement.

'Ollie einai perioploso. Hotypis to kefalio sou.' She replied. Brainon went through his entire head with his hand in search of the wound. He finally found the scar with the tip of his fingers and laughed.

'Priestly medicine… Now that is something, is it not?' He said to Seth and then looked back at Sotira. 'Efchatistos.'

As she mildly bowed to him, Brainon stood up and looked into the distance. The city of Limani began to grow bigger on the horizon with each moment.

At some point an echoing choir began reach the three. It came from another boat, a bigger one, standing still on the water. It was full of kaghatians, about ten of them. They were singing and chanting together. The three stared at them with curiosity.

'Why are they so far out here?' Seth asked.

'This is the only place where they can fulfill their passion in peace. The ignorant prohibited songs and chants.'

'Why?'

'They do not understand them, just as they do not understand Khal Kaghatia.'

'Elo pio koftus.' Sotira said. Brainon nodded his head and turned the boat towards the second one. As they approached the group of kaghatians, Sotira leaned out with a big smile and smoothly joined their vocals with a wonderfully beautiful chanting. Upon hearing that voice, they looked at her with astonishment and happiness. Both sides began waving to each other enthusiastically. However Brainon's boat passed them after a while and carried on to the port of Limani.

As the city grew bigger in front of them, they noticed dozens of troops in white armors standing all around the harbor.

'Stormtroopers…' Seth said and looked at Sotira. 'They can't see her like that.'

Brainon looked at her as well and then began scavenging through all the cargo he had stashed under a couple of benches. He finally took out a long, brown jacket with a hood.

'It is Lidia's jacket for a colder breeze. I do not think she would mind if you borrowed it.' He said and gave it to Sotira. She put it on, but it still wasn't enough to hide her uniqueness. Brainon kept looking and found a pair of green pants.

'This hair of yours…' Seth said while looking at the huge bush on her head. He reached to his pocket and grabbed a little rope and then went on to tie her hair from the back. It was almost as if he had to fight it. Now that he had a chance to dip his hands deep in her hair, he realized that it was much more dense than it looked, to the point of having an almost spongy structure, but a one that was very nice in touch. From the looks on her face she clearly disliked having her hair tied, but submitted to it. 'I am sorry… You are just too pretty.'

Seth and Brainon took a step back and eyed Sotira up and down as she put on a hood.

That hair was hard to tame and kept sticking out from underneath, but at least it didn't catch as much attention as before and the jacket covered most of her tattoos.

'That will do.' Seth nodded.

Brainon docked the boat in the least populated pier and said:

'So… This is it. I cannot assist you further, I need to get back to my girls.'

'It's ok.' Seth reassured him.

Sotira walked up to Brainon and embraced him.

'Efchatistoume gia eisi diovali.' She said.

Now that Seth's turn came, Brainon embraced him as well.

'Thank you Seth… For telling me the truth.' He said, leaving Seth speechless, terrified of what the truth was. With her compassion, Sotira felt that as well. Before the two new it, Brainon sailed away. They quickly left the harbor and hid in a small nearby garden, where Seth sat down on the ground in despair while all the painful memories kept coming back. All that time, he was sitting there in company of a man and an entire family, which he has failed.

Sotira slowly embraced him, just like the day before on the beach. However this time she did not give him a sip of a mysterious water, but spoke out in her language and just as she willed, Seth heard understandable words in his head.

'I can feel how hard it is, and that your memories are hard to recall… But know they forgave you… They did not even hold a grudge against you. It would be illogical. You told us the entire story, and there was nothing you could have done. It is the truth… And once Khal Kaghatia told me "the truth will set you free". Embrace it.'

Finally, Sotira's words somehow affected Seth. He felt something he could not explain, just as if it was a missing piece. The moment he genuinely embraced the truth, memories from the previous night became accessible. They were still blurry and hard to understand, but he had a vague idea of what happened.

First, Seth and Sotira stepped into the water, probably to have a swim… Afterwards they returned to the family and finished their supper and then… Late at night they have gone somewhere…

Seth felt incredibly relieved, like he was finally in control of his life. He looked at Sotira and saw not only a savior of his flesh, but also his soul.

Seth walked out from the garden in her company as new man. Now that the painful memories no longer clouded his vision, he could see the beauty in this world that kaghatians kept talking about. The beauty of being alive, finding pleasure even in the darkest of times, being able to travel in such a wonderful company. The thin cobblestone streets, which went up the hill felt old, like they were a legacy of generations that built this city, which was perfectly balanced with nature. From palm trees standing around the harbor to ivy climbing up the walls.

There were more stormtroopers on those streets than in most other cities, and the nightly curfew was coming. There were no more kaghatians to be found on the outside and the two had to find a place to safely spend the night. As they sneaked through various squares and chaotic alleys, the darkness grew around the city. The only sources of light in Limani were several lit windows for each building and flashlights at the end of stormtroopers' blaster rifles, who patrolled the area. One of such squads rounded them up to a dead end alley. Among many closed doors around them, was an arch, leading to small garden between high buildings. Inside, there were not enough bushes to hide, however, there was a high tree reaching far up to the rooftops. Seth and Sotira looked at it and then at each other. Without any needles words, they agreed on what they were about to do.

Two stormtroopers looked through the arc into the garden and shed the light around it. Seeing nothing unusual, they left after a few mere seconds and began chattering in the distance. Seth and Sotira sighed in relief while peeking down from the tree. Thick branches near the top turned out to be quite comfortable. They did not leave for the rest of the night and rested embraced by the nature.

…

A usual nightly silence around Khalos has been disrupted. A loud hum spread around the city and something covered a portion of crystal clear sky of stars. A huge imperial ship, _the Dominator_ , hanged threateningly above everyone. Usually it circled around the entire land, but the fact that that stopped over Khalos meant serious business.

The moment agent Vanto returned to the barracks for the night, two officers he has not seen before approached him.

'Agent Vanto?' One of them asked.

'Yes.' Clive replied with confusement. It was unusual for anyone to bother him at that time.

'You are being summoned to _the Dominator._ ' Officer said with a serious tone.

'By whom.' Vanto asked boldly, but received no answer.

Two officers led him to an imperial shuttle, which took the agent to the big star destroyer class ship. From the very hangar, the atmosphere on board seemed unusually tense in combination with cold and crude interiors of an imperial ship. Engineers and officers looked unsettled.

An elevator took Vanto to the bridge, where someone was apparently waiting for him. The doors opened, revealing an almost empty room with the view on Khalos, booming with light. In the middle, back to the elevator stood a figure. As Clive walked further into the bridge, he realized that it must have been the woman who has observed him at the arena. She wore the same, unusually long and grey imperial uniform that looked like a robe. She turned around. Her face was pale, hair tied on the back and covered with an imperial officer's hat. Once Vanto's eyes finally noticed what was pinned to her chest, he stopped, in a mixture of fear and uncertainty.

That woman's insignia plaque exceed any other rank know to Clive, even one of grand moff or grand director. He has never seen anything like it, but that meant she must have been a very important person within the Empire, probably serving directly under the Emperor.

Vanto did not dare to ask who she was, only bowed his head and awaited for her to begin the dialogue. The woman looked around the bridge.

'Leave us. The ship will do fine without your watch.' She said to the remaining crew. Her voice was cold, but not as serious as Clive expected. Once everyone left without a word, she looked back at the agent.

'Agent Clive Anderon Vanto of the Imperial Security Bureau… Just as tall and handsome as I predicted.' She said and began to circle him. In his discomfort, he kept looking forward. 'You seem unsettled agent… Do not let the insignia scare you.' She whispered to his ear. He saw her behavior provocative, and kept standing as he did.

'I am not afraid.' Vanto exclaimed.

'Now not, but delve deeper and you will be. Ironically this is what I need you to do. I have a mission for you. Though they seem inconspicuous, kaghatians hide a secret. Knowing Khal, hidden deep below the ground.'

'Khal?'

'Pardon me… I misspoke… Knowing them, it would be hidden deep underground.'

'A secret… Could you elaborate milady?'

'Hardly, for none know its true nature. All I can say is that it is a secret of immense power… One that could reshape the galaxy.'

'I don't understand… Why me? Why didn't you give that mission director Morin himself?'

'Admiral Morin does a great for the most part… But you are different… Soon you will realize how, when he arrives…' She said. Vanto stood still in confusement. 'A very special guest is going to arrive in time, and when he does, the secret is ought to be served to him on a silver platter. Now I know about your past and how drinking has ruined your career, but those who made a decision to degrade you were not open minded enough… I trust in your skills. You have one month agent.'

Vanto's situation kept getting more bizarre with every day, but that barely bothered him. All he kept thinking about were his prospects for the future, the future he would have if he succeeded with every mission he was given. Perhaps he would regain his old position, or climb even higher… Fulfilling his dream of becoming an imperial inquisitor. That optimism filled him with self confidence and determination.


	8. Chapter 8 - Hands off my child!

**-8-**

 **Hands off my child!**

"One can only rule himself."

Seth lazily woke up to a bunch of screams, close to him as well as far away. Only after a while, upon opening his eyes he realized Sotira kept shaking him.

'Kysna shai Seth! Kysna shai!' She yelled. But it wasn't just her. The whole city around them was buzzing yells and screams of all kinds.

Seth stretched his hands and then with Sotira's help climbed up to rooftop right next to the tree that served as their bed. As they walked over to the other edge and looked down on the streets, they saw mayhem. Squadrons of stormtroopers separated children and teenagers from their families, all crying out loud in critique of the immortality, resisting with confusion. The overwhelming number of such instances paralyzed Seth, as he saw that they were unable to help them all. However that did not stop Sotira. She jumped down to a fire escape in a thin alley and then smoothly got down to the bottom before Seth managed to notice that.

'No… Sotira! They can't see you!' He yelled and jumped down the same way.

Sotira stopped at the end of the alley where spread the wide view on the terror before her. The moment Seth wanted to approach her, he froze, just as everyone else did. He felt… weightless, unable to move any part of his body. Everything began to fade away, except for Sotira. She slowly walked up to the crowd and raised her hand. The bizarre phenomenon ceased suddenly and within its end,the closest two stormtroopers, dragging a young boy away from his parents, were hit with a strong shockwave, disarming and subduing them. Sotira quickly approached the boy, kissed him in the forehead and said:

'Trexida filios. Toud finteis se stantison.'

The boy ran away immediately and only looked back at his family with sadness.

As the two stormtroopers stood back up, they looked at Sotira. With their helmets on, it was hard to tell what they felt, but they for sure were on alert.

'Is that…' One of them asked.

'A priestess!' The other one confirmed and reached for his comlink. 'All units… I have a visual on a kaghatian priestess!'

All of the stormtroopers around the street began to look around nervously and some even strayed off from their original task. Their entire attention gathered around Sotira, who with self confidence backed of into the alley…

…

The two white armored men approached threateningly. Enetin attempted to separate them from a kaghatian couple and their twins, while Kainee stood right next to him, ready to stop the stormtroopers if they get too close.

'You do not have to do this…' He said, but to their surprise, soldiers stopped and grabbed the sides of their helmets, listening to their comlinks.

'A priestess, down in the sector 12A.'

'Finally, some real deal. Imagine if we caught her.'

'Let's go… We've got no time for those kids…' The stormtrooper said. They gave a vile look to the kaghatians and then quickly ran away. All of the family sighed with relief, while Enetin and Kainee stared at each other with confusement and a small dose of excitement.

'A priestess…' Enetin exclaimed.

'I will go for a run to check it out.' Kainee replied.

'May it be so, but be careful.'

'Do not worry, I always am.' She said and run away to a staircase on one of the nearby courtyards, which lead to the rooftops.

Kainee followed the yells of the stormtroopers and rumble of their equipment. They rushed through the streets chaotically, but were quite slow. Kainee quickly outran them with the help of her agility and knowledge of those streets.

A huge flock of stormtroopers have lost the trail on a square, and then ran off in different directions looking for the priestess. However, Kainee noticed something they did not. Two people were hiding on one of the balconies on the street, and after a while, carried on climbing up a building. One was a girl, with extraordinarily beautiful coily hair. Kainee could barely see them, but she saw the characteristic tattoos, meaning that she indeed was a priestess. On the other hand, her companion shook Kainee even more. It was an outlander with long blonde hair, wearing Enetin's vest. It was Seth…

Kainee stormed into a house of a befriended kaghatian where Enetin and Mida awaited. All looked at her with impatience.

'Have you seen her? Was that a priestess?' Mida asked. Kainee chuckled and replied:

'Yes… And you all will not believe who else… She was with Seth! He is alright!'

'How did he get here?' Enetin asked with amazement.

'I do not know… But what matters is where they are going, out from the city, north.'

'They must be going back to Khalos, to my apartment. Kyria mou...' Mida said.

'We must stop them. They do not know it is not safe… We need to catch up with them before they reach Khalos.' Enetin exclaimed, suddenly turning nervous and looked at Mida. 'We need to go away once again Mida… You just stay here…'

'No…' She interrupted worryingly. 'I cannot stand once again waiting for you to return for another one of your actions… I am more scared without you at my side than I am outside around the ignorant… I will go with you and help however I can.'

Enetin made a smile in a mixture of worry and pride.

'Then let us go. We cannot waste time.' He said and took his backpack to pack his personal belongings and books.

'I will go for Vela and Argo.' Kainee said.

'Sure… But quickly. Each seconds gets them closer to danger.'

…

Lionela woke up hugging a floor in a cold, claustrophobic room. As she slowly opened her eyes, she realized it was a kaghatian architecture, crudely reorganized into an imperial prison, a cage where she awaited for her slaughter with a single, small window that let the light in. Missing the warm sunlight on her skin, she stood on a harsh bed without a mattress and peeked outside.

The moment Landa saw the Twin Stars above the horizon, a bizarre feeling struck her, as if there was something deep within her. In her mind it seemed chaotic, but she felt a need to visualize it. Almost instinctively her hand reached for a buckle on her belt, detached it and let her hand freely scratch the wall with the sharp edge.

First, two points, left higher than the other… Beauty and kindness. Bound together by a circle that was the understanding, it made a core and in the middle of it, love. From that middle stretched sixteen lines that were the commonly understood virtues. That mystical construct was surrounded by another circle, one of intermittent lines and dots where the structure of the universe has been encoded. Beyond it, an even wider double orbit, the final layer that was the matter itself.

Lionela dropped the buckle in shock and stared at what she has recreated in disbelief. It was not even the shock of what she has created, but of the fact that she understood what it meant. That was the theory of everything, drawn with a few simple lines. So complexed, and yet so clear. It was something that the scientists tried to comprehend over the years, and it laid hidden here, in the land of the kaghatians, on the mysterious wall right behind Khal Kaghatia herself. Landa understood, that the world she is living in is nothing but the surface of that sphere of existence, and that deep within lies something beyond comprehension, something truly beautiful.

All that time before, she was wrong, she was blind, ignorant of what lied in the middle. She has left her family to follow the sick ambitions of being an important imperial, turning her back on the love of her mother and father.

A sound of footsteps spread around the prison, she did not react. The person stopped at her cell and spoke with irony, but also a little bit of nervousness in his voice:

'I didn't figure you for an art person… Perhaps more of a connoisseur.'

'Why are you here, agent. Have you come to torment me before my death?'

'I have come to realize that you have a few more things to tell me about the wall.'

'Since when do you care about the wall.'

'Ever since I understood that there is a great deal of knowledge to be discovered there.' Vanto said. There was no truth in his words, and Lionela did not understand how she knew that. She only chuckled a replied quietly:

'You are doing it only to get promoted… Aren't you? That doesn't matter… I will share what you need either way.'

Agent Vanto looked at her with suspicion and confusion, obviously as he did not expect that to be so easy.

'Just like that…' He said.

'Just like that.' She whispered.

'Why?'

'Because once you meet their secrets, two things may happen… You either won't understand it, or you will stray from the Empire.'

Vanto laughed and stepped closer to the cell, leaning his head and whispering in an even more threatening way than before:

'Is that so? Test me.'

Lionela stepped away to the corner of the cell, revealing the entirety of her scribbles on the wall. There, she stood humbly. Agent looked at her as if he was waiting for something more, but there was nothing.

'So…'

'Everything is here… All you would ever need to know.'

Vanto looked the wall with disbelief and sighed loudly.

'What did they do to you, Landa?' He said while she stepped over, back to him.

'The question is what did you do to me… Only now did I realize that the academy took away what could have been the greatest years of my life… You took away my will by forcing me to blindly follow orders… You stripped me away from my personality with those soulless uniforms!' She yelled. Each sentence gained on frustration until she aggressively took of the top of her uniform and threw it at the door of her cell. 'How are we any different from the clone army? I want to wear an Alderaanian dress to work!'

'Alright… I see we are not getting anywhere with that… Just tell me about the wall. What is it? How does it work? And what does it hide? If you help me, I can lay off the execution or even suspend it.'

'It leads to what's deep within?' Landa replied, and upon hearing it Vanto's eyes widened in a flash as he stared at Lionela demandingly.

'Deep within… That's it. What lies deep within? Is it an energy source like you once said? Have you even seen it?'

'I think so…' She said quietly, for the first time in that conversation showing doubt. 'I don't remember.'

'How can you not remember?' Vanto asked with frustration.

'It was as if I looked in a direction that is abstract to both of us… Not up or down, nor left or right… But into… There are no words to explain it.'

'Alright… But what was there when you "looked into"?

'I already told you… Everything is on the wall.' Lionela said with shame and pointed at her scribbles.'

Vanto sighed loudly and in tiredness leaned on a nearby wall.

'This is not going to work this way… Deep within! I mean underground. Do you know how to get deeper underground?'

Landa tried to remember, and amazingly out of nowhere, seemed to know the answer. She put a hand to her chest and said:

'Once you find your way here, the doorway will open.' She did not know how she knew it, but deep within felt that it was very important.

'So be it… I hope you will enjoy your last moments in the arena.' Vanto said with a disdain an walked away in presumption that Lionela Landa has gone mad.

…

At the edge of the city that was Limani, stood a long and high building where Seth and Sotira went to hide. Inside, were dozens of vehicles, from speeder bikes to airspeeders. Each had its own station right under the walls of a great hall. The two walked through the middle and stared at all of those inventions with curiosity.

Suddenly, a short, young boy walked out from behind one of the speeders. He was kaghatian, wearing a worker apron with plenty of pockets filled with a plethora of different tools and wiping cloths. His stance and voice were quite timid.

'Oh, hey guys… Did not expect any guests today…' He said, but became speechless upon looking at Sotira. After a moment of shock a mild smile of disbelief appeared on his face.

'Alimea.' Sotira said.

'Alimea…' The boy whispered happily and kept staring at the two for a longer while, until ultimately laughing uncomfortably at himself. 'My manners… Mou leanna einai Trofu… My name is Trofu. And you… Aliana with a friend… Hi.'

'Hello.' Seth said while nervously looking behind him for any dangers.

'Have you come to see the collection?' Trofu asked timidly.

'Not really… We are in a bit of a trouble.' Seth said.

'Oh… So that is what the fuss outside is all about… I see. A priestess…'

'It's not just that… The Empire is doing something, taking the youth from their homes…'

'So it is happening after all…' Trofu said with melancholy and sat on one of the vehicles.

'What it happening?'

'A few days ago the ignorant announced some sort of compulsory service for all younger than seventeen years, that includes me and my friends… We did not understand… We were busy with our activities… But they said we cannot refuse and we did not know what that would mean… We did not expect anything like this. How could they be so vile… But my friends, I need to find them!' Trofu said and in flash stood back, ready to leave out for the city, but Sotira grabbed his hand and stopped him.

'Denys einai asfalois. Strepsame tin proso tous olous esa. Trexida, prim erthon.' She said. Trofu stood back and processed his thoughts, then nodded his head.

'They are all running away… We need to run away as well. They cannot find me, you and you… Ellia… Come.' He said and rushed away, precisely observing each ship and speeder. Seth and Sotira peeked at each other and followed him. 'Something that could fly us far away and fit three people…'

'Are all of those ships yours?' Seth asked.

'Oh, no… Of course not, I am still constructing my own speeder bike. Those belong to all sorts of kaghatians around Limani, I only maintain them…'

Trofu stopped right in front of an old, wide airspeed, with a comfortably tight cabin and three seats. It was apparent that it has been imported from the outside world.

'Cosy…' Seth commented.

'Yes… Is it not? I always wanted to try it out…' Trofu said and looked at them and asked timidly. 'You want to tag along? I would very much like you to go with me...'

'Well of course. Thanks' Seth laughed and looked over at Sotira who nodded enthusiastically. 'I don't think we have much of a choice anyway.'

Trofu warmed up the engines while Seth and Sotira proceeded to open the big hangar doors leading outside the city. With the way clear, all hopped into the airspeeder and made themselves comfortable in soft leather seats. The inside was a little, rusty, but had a very comforting smell of various local spices. Despite its age, the engine ran smooth and quietly, but it was not the quality of the engine… It seemed as if there was no fuel powering, but only electricity.

'I do not think Mikos will mind if we borrow his ship… Considering the circumstances.' Trofu said while the airspeeder left its station. Hovering right above the floor, he aligned it with the runway of the hangar and pushed one of many levers. The engines boomed loudly and pushed the three to their seats with their force. In a flash the ship flew out from the building and left the boundaries of Limani in a low altitude, maneuvering between the trees.

The view from the cockpit was spectacular to say the least, spreading as wide as the sea itself, surrounded by green hills and nothing but dessert beyond.

'So… Where should we go? Trofu asked.

'Khalos… We need to find my friends there.'

'No… Sorry… I meant, where should we go and hide…'

'I… Don't understand.'

'I know that some kaghatians may not know that much about the ignorant… But I had many problems and dealings with them… And I know they will look all around for the escapees… We need to hide for a couple of days, until everything cools down, somewhere that they won't find us.'

Seth leaned back with frustration. Upon entering the airspeeder he saw as a straight shot to the final point of their journey.

'I do not want to tense things up… But we need some ideas before the ignorant will begin looking for us with their ships… Sotira, echeis kamia illis?' Trofu asked politely while steering the airspeeder along the coast. She did not answer.

Since the start, Sotira kept looking outside, admiring the landscapes. It was the first time she saw the Land of the Twin Stars from such a perspective.

The three spent a longer time in silence, until they have reached the northern top of the sea, where lied the mouth of the river. It was a huge delta that created several big islands. All were covered with dense woods and the biggest one had a creek in the middle.

'Tiles gi aftois?' Sotira asked and pointed at the islands.

'Kyria mou… Fysikai! Why have I not thought of that…'

'What?' Seth asked.

'There are kaghatians that could help us, on the islands…' Trofu said and directed the airspeeder at the biggest island. Seth leaned forward, observed it and said:

'It doesn't look inhabited.'

'Fysikai… Of course it does not. They live in wilderness… In balance with the nature. They are basically invisible to anyone or anything from the outside… Especially to the ignorant. They do not care for what lies deep within the woods.' Trofu said with excitement. 'I always wanted to visit that place.'

'Sure… But where are we going to land? It's too dense.' Seth asked worryingly.

'Oh… If I remember correctly, this one can land on the water… I think…'

'You're not sure?' Seth asked nervously. Trofu looked at him and said happily:

'Well, we will see… Will we not?' Seth did not understand his excitement in the face of danger, especially as Trofu did not slow down upon the approach to the creek. 'Hold on friends…' Trofu said and suddenly pulled a lever, which slowed the ship down right before hitting the water. The airspeeder suddenly stopped right above the water and slowly settled down on its surface. 'The moment of truth…'

The cockpit opened and Seth stood up to peek at the water. The airspeeder stood still on the surface.

'We are not sinking… You were right.' Seth said with relief. Trofu laughed in happiness and jumped out from his seat. Sotira followed him shortly after.

The decent sized creek was surrounded by low but dense woods. Seth jumped off the ship. As expected, the water was shallow and the bottom was full of underwater plants. Sotira grabbed her backpack and followed the rest to the shore. Once they stepped on the ground, Seth took a look around the forest and a creek. There was nothing of interest to be seen, until a mysterious kaghatian girl in ragged clothes appeared on an opposite shore. She nodded her head and disappeared into the woods. The three stared at each other and in mutual understanding decided to follow the kaghatian.

…

'What if…' Vanto kept asking himself on the way in his speeder, through the streets of Khalos booming with chaos. 'What if she spoke the truth?'

There was certain possibility, that all the reason he knew was wrong… Nonsense. Officer Landa has gone mad… But still, there must have been a reason for that. Too much of that kaghatian liquor? That would not be possible… And yet who knew what was inside of it. None of that made sense, but despite all of that, the answers Vanto needed were hidden somewhere beneath those ramblings.

None of the workers returned to the excavation and ironically, Clive shouldn't have been there at the time. He was ought to oversee the preparations of the Imperial Academy of Khalos. However orders of the mysterious woman seemed like more pressing matters to him.

The wall seemed empty and the thin carving were barely visible. Agent took all the scans from the computer and displayed on a hologram, which he perfectly aligned with the wall to give him a clear picture.

The resemblance was shocking. Ornaments on that wall were identical to what officer Landa scribbled in the prison cell. Each element seemed bizarrely specific.

Could there have been a meaning hidden behind those lines and circles… Those two stars the girl held in her hand? Vanto had a hard time thinking and processing it. It's been long since he had a good drink that open up his mind, calm him down. He hadn't had alcohol in his mouth ever since drinking the mysterious local beverage. Clive reached for hip flask he carried around for a black hour and took a big sip. Even though he knew that taste, he didn't expect it to be so bitter, compared to the kaghatian one. It was better than nothing.

Agent Vanto sat down and started trying thinking hard, seeking any clue to what that this place truly means. How did Landa manage to comprehend it?


End file.
